Indiana Banks Urge Congress To Pass New Funding For Small Businesses

Small businesses have rushed to get federal assistance due to the coronavirus pandemic. Now, Indiana banks are urging Congress to boost funding.

Banks across the state have been working around the clock to submit applications for small business loans. As of Thursday, more than $7 billion had been secured through the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

That funding, approved by Congress last month in response to COVID-19 causing a shutdown of the economy, ran out of money Thursday. The Small Business Administration (SBA) also announced this week that the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) had been exhausted of funds, leaving some small businesses unable to receive needed economic relief.

Indiana Bankers Association CEO Amber Van Til says banks were surveyed Friday morning on how many loan applications were still sitting on desks.

“The total amount was over a billion dollars; about 9,000 applications still on the desks of Indiana banks,” says Van Til.

The organization is advocating for additional funding to be added to PPP that would help small businesses keep employees on their payrolls.

While Congress considers an additional $250 billion for paycheck loans, Van Til says even more will be needed.

“To meet the need, there’ll probably need to be a third stimulus package, which you know I don’t think they’re talking about yet,” says Van Til. “But, 250 billion is not going to be enough to process all the applications already sitting on our desks.”

She says an estimated total of $1 trillion will need to be allocated to PPP.