More than $1.5B in PPP loans went to Pennsylvania small businesses in the program’s second round, early data shows

A second round of Paycheck Protection Program loans opened up first to underrepresented small business owners, and then the general population this month. It offered businesses a chance to get a second loan in 2021.

Initial data indicates more than $1 billion in loans have been approved for Pennsylvania businesses, the U.S. Small Business Administration said Thursday.

The SBA reopened the PPP loans, which are meant to help small businesses deal with losses created by the COVID-19 pandemic, on Jan. 11 with $284 billion appropriated through the Economic Aid Act. Between Jan. 11 and Jan. 24, 15,000 PPP loans totaling more than $1.58 billion have been approved by the SBA in Pennsylvania, the agency said.

Nationally, that number reached 400,000 businesses for a total of more than $35 billion in loans so far in 2021. This time around the average loan size is about $87,000, and the entire PPP program (including the first round back in April 2020 and this round so far) has dolled out 5.5 million loans for a total of $557.8 billion, the SBA’s national report shows.

Earlier this month, Chad Palank, M&T Bank’s regional manager of business and professional banking, told Technical.ly that this second round of the program was intended to target especially vulnerable industries, like hospitality, but was open to any industry. It’s also more targeted to what is considered a true small business, including a new rule that companies must have a 300-employee limit.

Nationally, the sectors that received the most in loans in 2021 so far include accommodation and food service, construction, manufacturing, and professional, scientific and tech services.

The SBA report shows that M&T Bank, which operates across the mid-Atlantic and Northeast region of the U.S., approved nearly $422.7 million across 1,100 Philly-area applications, affecting 37,259 local jobs. M&T Bank is currently the national leader in 2021 loans, the SBA report showed, loaning more than $718 million across 5,261 loans. The average loan size was $136,501.

SBA Mid-Atlantic Acting Regional Administrator John Fleming said in Thursday’s announcement that four of five regional PPP loans were for amounts under $100,000 in this round. This indicates that the SBA was successful in targeting smaller businesses, as it intended, he said.

“Local SBA staff, lenders and partners are working together to connect small and micro businesses with the funding they need to recover and confidently move their business forward,” he said in the statement.

More than 500 lenders and and community financial institutions participated in the PPP program during this second round in Pennsylvania, SBA Eastern Pennsylvania District Director Steve Dixel said.

PPP loans remain open through March 31. Read about what to keep in mind if you’re interested in applying here.