SBA: Small Businesses Move to Head of Loan Application Line

NEW YORK (AP) — The smallest companies seeking coronavirus relief loans are moving to the head of the line.

The Small Business Administration says that for eight hours ending at midnight Eastern time it will accept loans only from small lenders.

SBA head Jovita Carranza says in a tweet that the step is being taken to ensure that small community lenders and their small business customers would have access to the $310 billion program.

There have been concerns about the nation’s smallest businesses being able to get loans because small banks, many of them with just a few hundred applications, have had to compete with big national banks submitting hundreds of thousands of loan requests.