Virtually All PPP Loans have been Forgiven with Limited Scrutiny -

"More than two years later, the overwhelming majority of these loans have transformed into government grants, as 91% have been either fully or partially forgiven.”

Why this is important: One of the most popular economic relief measures was the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) that authorized loans to small businesses to empower them to keep their workers employed (and paychecks funded) during the mandatory shutdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Borrowers were assured that the loans would be forgivable, as long as certain conditions were met. Approximately 11.5 million loans were issued through the PPP program, using all of the $800 billion in allocated funding. In an updated report from data released by the Small Business Administration, the program appears to have been very successful – with 91 percent of loans having completed the process to be fully (or partially) forgiven. Of the 1 million loans that remain in process, the delays stem from a variety of factors, including loans issued during the later rounds of the program, being issued through online or Fintech banking systems, rather than traditional banks, and being primarily issued to sole-proprietorships. The SBA anticipates seeing these loans also qualify for forgiveness in whole or in part in the coming months. Some critics of the PPP program argue that the initial rounds of loan issuances were rife with fraudulent qualifications. Investigations remain underway for those. These results from the SBA data certainly seem to indicate that the PPP program was administered in a prudent and efficient manner by all lenders, and responsibly received by borrowers that were in desperate need of the economic assistance