April 2, 2020 / By Stephanie Ruhle, Ben Popken and Michael Cappetta
Millions of small businesses are anxiously awaiting their slices of a $350 billion relief program that forms part of the government’s $2 trillion economic support package. However, with just hours to go before launch, it wasn’t until Thursday night that banks received their 31 pages of guidance from the Treasury Department on how to lend the money — and some haven’t even decided whether they can participate on the opening day.
In a strongly worded statement, one of the nation’s biggest lenders said the much-touted relief program for small business owners wasn’t ready for prime time.
“Financial institutions like ours are still awaiting guidance from the SBA and the U.S. Treasury,” Chase Bank said in an email to business customers, referring to the Small Business Administration. “As a result, Chase will most likely not be able to start accepting applications on Friday, April 3rd, as we had hoped.”
