House Financial Services Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) is asking for a supplemental appropriation for the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network so that it can implement the anti-money laundering and Bank Secrecy Act changes Congress passed last year.
The Biden Administration released a bare-bones funding blueprint for next year and it proposes a 22.2% increase for the Community Development Financial Institutions program, the opposite of Trump Administration budgets which always called for elimination of the program.
Credit unions might be forced to decline members or their deposits if the NCUA does not take action to ease credit union net worth ratio problems caused by the pandemic, CUNA and the American Association of Credit Union Leagues warned late last week.
The Small Business Administration’s Inspector General has issued a report finding that in the first batch of Paycheck Protection Program loans last year, 4,260 borrowers got two PPP loans when they only should have received one. The SBA intends to not forgive those duplicate loans, but to prevent duplication from happening again, the SBA has added controls that are causing delays and a logjam in loan processing this cycle, raising concerns that businesses will be caught without a loan when the program ends on March 31. The House has now passed legislation that would extend the PPP to the end of May.
Credit unions are finding themselves having to explain to thousands of members why it looks like Economic Impact Payments have been received but can’t be accessed. This is because the IRS decided to use March 17th as a release date for the funds and did not send payments using the same-day Automated Clearing House (ACH) system for direct deposits.
The Biden Administration has been studying the Paycheck Protection Program loan processes and has made some changes designed to smooth the process, cut down on fraud, and give the smallest businesses access to the loans. For two weeks beginning on Wednesday, PPP applications will be limited to businesses with fewer than 20 employees. Other changes have been made to the program too.
Credit union trade groups report that the Small Business Administration and the Treasury Department are still failing to anticipate problems with the Paycheck Protection Program rollout and are still playing catch-up with issues. Nevertheless, the trade groups also report that this rollout has gone a lot smoother than in the past.
The Inspector General of the Small Business Administration warned that during the earlier Paycheck Protection Program lending, businesses on a Treasury Department “Do Not Pay” list were approved for $3.6 billion in loans. It is not clear how much of the money was actually distributed.
The National Credit Union Administration will begin accepting applications on Jan. 24 for federally insured, low-income credit unions that want to use the agency’s streamlined qualification process to be certified as Community Development Financial Institutions.
The new Paycheck Protection Program starts with initial lending limited to businesses who have not received a PPP loan and lending going through Community Development Financial Institutions, Minority Depository Institutions, certified development corporations and microlenders. After a few days the lending options open further.