PPP will open again for all lenders on Tuesday, Jan. 19

The Paycheck Protection Program, initially rolled out last spring to help businesses survive the financial blows of the coronavirus pandemic, is open again for another round of loans.

The program is intended to incentivize small businesses to keep their workers on the payroll instead of laying them off. The Small Business Administration will forgive the loans if all employee retention criteria are met and the funds are used for eligible expenses, including payroll costs, payments on business mortgage interest payments, rent or utilities.

On Jan. 11, applications opened for businesses applying through community financial institutions, which lend to minority-owned and economically disadvantaged businesses. The SBA announced this week that the $284.45 billion program would also open to small lenders on Friday, Jan. 15, and to all other lenders on Tuesday, Jan. 19. Small lenders are defined as lenders with $1 billion or less in assets, such as community banks, credit unions and farm credit institutions.

The program is open to both those new to applying for PPP, and those who received a PPP loan in the program’s first round, which opened in April 2020 and closed that August. Eligibility for a second loan requires that a business “will or has used” all of the money from the first loan. Those businesses also must have fewer than 300 employees, and need to demonstrate a 25% reduction in gross receipts between between quarters in 2019 and 2020.

The first round dispersed loans to 5.2 million small businesses representing 51 million workers, according to the SBA, though economists dispute the Trump administration’s claim that 51 million jobs were actually retained through the program. The SBA also reported this week that it has forgiven over $100 billion in first-round loans, or nearly 85% of forgiveness applications received.

Find PPP lender forms and guidance at sba.gov/ppp.