Last week in advance of the opening up of federal subsidized programs to backstop small businesses in the US crushed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Lendio CEO Brock Blake took to Twitter to criticize the lack of coordination between the US Department of Treasury and the Small Business Administration (SBA). Blake called the process a “mess” and described the situation as a “power struggle” that is turning into a “disaster.”
1/ Wow. What a mess! Just got off a conf call with the SBA. The @SBAgov & @USTreasury are having a power struggle and this is turning into a disaster. Millions of small businesses will be lining up for loans tomorrow, yet those 2 organizations are fighting about process & forms.
— Brock Blake (@BrockBlake) April 2, 2020
Lendio is an online lender that is participating in the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), part of the $2 trillion CARES Act aimed at getting small business owners back on their feet.
In a Tweet thread, Blake said the bottom line is the “SBA & the Treasury need to quit the power struggle, get aligned, provide REAL guidance (for ALL lenders, business owners, and agents) so that… … we can get much need capital into the hands of SMBs that are suffering right now!”
In a more recent Tweet thread, Blake provided some perspective on the progress made of getting lenders up to speed and SMEs access to much needed capital.
2/ Bank CEO cont’d: “I was on an ABA call this morning with @stevenmnuchin1 from @USTreasury w/ senior @SBAgov SBA officials. Here are some interesting things they said:
‘1200 banks are now participating process in the PPP program. 4000 banks are NOT yet participating.’
— Brock Blake (@BrockBlake) April 6, 2020
US Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin has said that if the money runs out ($349 billion) he will demand more from Congress. Meanwhile, the entire economy teeters on disruption that will only be fixed once the country is on the other side of the COVID-19 crisis.
