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The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is launching a streamlined application portal August 4th to allow borrowers with Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans of $150,000 or less to apply for loan forgiveness directly through the SBA instead of going through their participating lender. According to the SBA, more than 600 banks have agreed to allow access to the portal for more than 2.17 million borrowers.
“The SBA’s new streamlined application portal will simplify forgiveness for millions of our smallest businesses—including many sole proprietors—who used funds from our Paycheck Protection Program loans to survive the pandemic,” SBA administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman said in a prepared statement.
Lenders are required to opt-in to the new program through directforgivness.sba.gov. In addition to the platform, the SBA is setting up a PPP customer service team to answer questions and assist borrowers directly with their forgiveness applications.
Established by the CARES Act in 2020, the PPP was among the first COVID-19 small business economic aid programs and provided more than $798 billion in economic relief to over 8.5 million small businesses and nonprofits across the United States.
