The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) is a $669-billion business loan program established by the US Federal government Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) to help certain businesses, self-employed workers, sole proprietors, certain nonprofit organizations, and tribal businesses continue paying their workers. [wikipedia]
On 2020-07-06, the U.S Small Business Administration in collaboration with the Department Of The Treasury released data on the PPP loans provided so far. For loans over $150,000, company name and address information was released, along self-reported demographic and business information. Details for loans under $150,000 remain mostly private, though industry codes and issuing bank details are available.
PPPreport.org provides an easy-to-search database of the loans above the $150k mark.
Official Loan Data Release Notice:
In releasing PPP loan data to the public, SBA is maintaining a balance between providing transparency to American taxpayers and protecting small businesses’ confidential business information, such as payroll, and personally identifiable information. Small businesses are the driving force of American economic stability and are essential to America economic rebound from the pandemic. SBA is committed to ensuring that any release of PPP loan data does not harm small businesses or their employees.
PPP loans are not made by SBA. PPP loans are made by lending institutions and then guaranteed by SBA. Accordingly, borrowers apply to lenders and self-certify that they are eligible for PPP loans. The self- certification includes a good faith certification that the borrower has economic need requiring the loan and that the borrower has applied the affiliation rules and is a small business. The lender then reviews the borrower’s application, and if all the paperwork is in order, approves the loan and submits it to SBA.
A small business or non-profit organization that is listed in the publicly released data has been approved for a PPP loan by a delegated lender. However, the lender’s approval does not reflect a determination by SBA that the borrower is eligible for a PPP loan or entitled to loan forgiveness. All PPP loans are subject to SBA review and all loans over $2 million will automatically be reviewed. Because a borrower is listed in the data as having a PPP loan does not mean that SBA has determined that the borrower complied with program rules or is eligibletoreceiveaPPPloanandloanforgiveness. Further,asmallbusiness’sreceiptofaPPPloanshould not be interpreted as an endorsement of the small business’ business activity or business model.
The public PPP data includes only active loans. Loans that were cancelled for any reason are not included in the public data release.
PPP loan data reflects the information borrowers provided to their lenders in applying for PPP loans. SBA can make no representations about the accuracy or completeness of any information that borrowers provided to their lenders. Not all borrowers provided all information. For example, approximately 75% of all PPP loans did not include any demographic information because that information was not provided by the borrowers. SBA is working to collect more demographic information from borrowers to better understand which small businesses are benefiting from PPP loans. The loan forgiveness application expressly requests demographic information for borrowers.