Even before the CARES Act was signed, taxpayers were excited about applying for a loan that could be partially forgiven with no COD and no “personal guarantee”. At the same time, banks were rounding up their best customers and preparing to pop them into the pipeline as soon as the program opened up.
Now, everyone is complaining that their big name bank won’t process a loan for them, even though they’ve been a customer for 5/10/25 years. Or that their bank isn’t doing these loans, and they can find a bank to take them if they weren’t already customers.
The SBA has a site that your clients can use to find a lender to help them with these loans. We recommend that you have the client go to https://www.sba.gov/paycheckprotection/find. This page will give them a list of lenders in their area. We recommend that they contact the smaller banks on that list to request assistance with these loans.
Small, local banks are eager for the business. Of course, their first priority in putting in the effort is to get new customers that will increase their asset base. As a result, they may require borrowers to open accounts with them, or move their banking to that institution and they may require a minimum number of employees (one bank we talked to won’t accept a business with fewer than 20 employees.