Fintech Companies Approved to Offer PPP Loans
Paypal, Quickbooks, and Square approved to offer small business loans through the Paycheck Protection Program
Update for 4/14/20: PayPal’s application is available online. This post has also been updated to include information about Divvy’s PPP loan process.
PayPal, Intuit, and Square have received approval from the Small Business Administration to participate in the Paycheck Protection Program.
This means small business owners can turn to these institutions for loans instead of going through big banks, such as Bank of America, Chase, and Wells Fargo. This is a breakthrough for small businesses who have been frustrated with the confusion and delays surrounding the PPP program.
PayPal had been quietly offering loans to more than 10 million businesses last Wednesday, and started disbursing cash to applications on Thursday, according to a Fortune article.
In the same Fortune article, PayPal said “there is no cap on how much money it is willing to loan.”
The application is available online to PayPal business customers but they don’t need to have a prior lending relationship with PayPal.
Following Paypal, Intuit announced its participation in the PPP program through its subsidiary, QuickBooks.
“Our goal is to get relief money into the hands of as many eligible applicants as possible, as fast as possible,” said Luke Voiles, VP and Business Leader of QuickBooks Capital. “Validation of payroll information is necessary to complete the PPP application. For QuickBooks Payroll customers, the customers’ data is already in the QuickBooks system. As a result, we are well positioned to help expedite the loan application process for this group.”
On Monday, Square also announced via Twitter that it was approved as a PPP lender.
1/4 Square Capital has received U.S. Treasury and SBA approval to be a PPP lender, and we will start rolling out our PPP loan applications this week. We continue to work with our partner Celtic Bank as they have existing expertise as a leading SBA lender.
— Jackie Reses (@jackiereses) April 13, 2020
Square will notify sellers when the application is available via Square Dashboard, starting with employers whose application data Square can verify automatically.
Divvy has also partnered with Cross River Bank to offer PPP loans. Divvy offers a digital application that customers can finish in “15 minutes,” according to Sterling Snow, Senior Vice President of Revenue at Divvy.
The PPP provides $349 billion worth of loans to small businesses with 500 or fewer employees. Portions of the loan can be forgiven if businesses keep their employees on payroll for 8 weeks following the loan origination date.
This is part of the larger $2.2 trillion economic stimulus package Congress passed, known as the CARES Act.
