Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Josh Guler and the loan team at New Rockford's Bank Forward branch brought new meaning to the term "banker's hours" last week. In spite of a short application window and a long learning curve, he and his team members processed local applications for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) on evenings and weekends to ensure that the small businesses they served would not be left out.
The PPP is part of the CARES Act, the $2 trillion legislation passed by Congress that aimed to provide financial relief to Americans struggling due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The PPP program offered loans to small businesses based on their 2019 payroll. The loans were processed through financial institutions and approved by the Small Business Administration. As long as a business receiving the loan uses at least 75 percent of the funds to pay employees, the loan will be forgiven.
Guler said the work began almost immediately after the program was approved by Congress. A few businesses who had gotten early notice had their applications ready for him the day the funds were released by SBA. He began submitting applications right away that Friday evening, April 3. Once the application portal opened 4 p.m., they went to the office and got the first one entered. They returned to the office on Saturday and did three more.
The next 10 days went by quickly as more businesses sought assistance and the available funds dwindled. After Guler had gone home for the day on Wednesday, April 15, he read an article in the "Wall Street Journal" that funds were expected to dry up. After supper he called up his loan team and said he was going back to work to make sure their clients had the opportunity to receive funds.
Without hesitation, all four of his loan team members - Caleb Rogelstad, Dillon Hewitt, Karen Omoth and Jenice Erfle - joined him back at the office. They sat down from 6:30 p.m. to midnight that Tax Day to process the 12 applications they had received but not yet entered into SBA.
"I've been in banking for 15 years, and I have never worked as hard as I did in that period," Guler recalls. The efforts of his team were certainly worth it, as SBA announced that the money had run out just hours later, by 9 a.m. on April 16. All 12 applications were approved in time.
This was all done while staffing was reduced at the bank. This "drive-up" lending certainly was an experience for Guler and his team, as they've been tasked with advising applicants via phone and having documents signed through the drive-up window.
Bank Forward's New Rockford branch processed 25 loans totaling $3.2 million in 12 days. Those funds will be used to keep workers on the payroll and small businesses operating during the pandemic.
Guler said Wednesday he has 25 more loan applications ready to process when and if more funds are allocated by Congress. This round, his clients are primarily self-employed and independent contractors, those who had merely two days to put together applications after SBA released direction on what documentation was needed to process those loans. Those fund requests are quite a bit smaller than the ones Bank Forward processed the first round, but just as important, because the few thousand dollars a sole proprietor qualifies to receive might be just enough to help that individual get by until the economy reopens.
Update: Since press time, a second round of funds has been approved for the Paycheck Protection Program. Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration Jovita Carranza and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin issued the following statement Friday (April 24) on the resumption of the Payroll Protection Program (PPP):
"We are pleased that President Trump has signed into law the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act, which provides critical additional funding for American workers and small businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic. We want to thank Leader McConnell, Leader Schumer, Speaker Pelosi, and Leader McCarthy for working with us on a bipartisan basis to ensure that the Paycheck Protection Program is funded so that small businesses can keep hardworking Americans on the payroll.
"The Small Business Administration will resume accepting PPP loan applications on Monday, April 27 at 10:30AM EDT from approved lenders on behalf of any eligible borrower. This will ensure that SBA has properly coded the system to account for changes made by the legislation.
"The PPP has supported more than 1.66 million small businesses and protected over 30 million jobs for hardworking Americans. With the additional funds appropriated by Congress, tens of millions of additional workers will benefit from this critical relief.
"We encourage all approved lenders to process loan applications previously submitted by eligible borrowers and disburse funds expeditiously. All eligible borrowers who need these funds should work with an approved lender to apply. Borrowers should carefully review PPP regulations and guidance and the certifications required to obtain a loan.
SBA Regional Administrator Dan Nordberg noted, "I am pleased that the US Small Business Administration will resume the processing of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans nationwide on Monday, April 27. In North Dakota alone, 11,002 PPP loans were approved for nearly 1.5 billion dollars. This program is one of the largest economic recovery efforts in our nation's history and was built in just seven short days, a true testament to the American spirit and demonstration of what is possible when we come together to serve a higher cause." – said SBA Regional Administrator Dan Nordberg.
