The SBA’s Office of the Inspector General has estimated that at least $80 billion distributed from the $400 billion Economic Injury Disaster Loan program could have been fraudulent, much of it in scams using stolen identities.
The three major U.S. banking regulators said Thursday they a plan to rewrite much of the outdated regulations tied to a decades-old banking law designed to encourage lending to the poor and racial minorities in the areas where banks have branches.
Economists and investors foresee the fastest pace of Federal Reserve rate increases since 1989. The result could be much higher borrowing costs for households well into the future.
WesBanco, a mid-sized bank based in Wheeling, West Virginia, said it has hired two people so far to staff a new loan production office in Indianapolis that will focus on both commercial and mortgage lending.
Meanwhile, mortgage applications fell again last week. The market composite index, a measure of total loan application volume, decreased 1.3% from a week earlier, according to Mortgage Bankers Association data.
Only about 30% of businesses that applied for financing last year got the full amount that they asked for, down from about half in 2019.
With inflation raging at four-decade highs, economists and investors expect the central bank to enact the fastest pace of rate hikes since 2005. That would mean higher borrowing rates well into the future.
In some of the cases, suspects wrongfully obtained federal loans to bolster companies that didn’t actually exist. In others, large, transnational crime syndicates stole workers’ identities to receive generous unemployment benefits under someone else’s name.
German American, which has 78 locations in 33 Indiana and Kentucky counties, said it plans to open a loan production office in Greenwood this quarter. It will be the bank’s first physical presence in this market.
Indiana bankers cite federal COVID-19 relief measures as a big reason—but not the only one.
Indianapolis is making preparations for its first Black-led Community Development Financial Institution, which will aim to offer businesses in economically disadvantaged communities access to capital and other help.
The five former directors and employees of the now-defunct Westfield firm were found guilty on fraud and conspiracy charges. Prosecutors say the five submitted false information in order to get more than $10 million in ineligible loans approved by the Small Business Administration.
Federal Reserve officials said the $35.3 billion seasonally adjusted increase in May was the largest one-month gain on records that go back to 1943.
Congress on Thursday overturned a set of regulations enacted in the final days of the Trump administration that effectively allowed payday lenders to avoid state laws capping interest rates.
The program, Build Fund, helps small businesses that are not ready for traditional bank loans receive affordable funding.
Loans from online lenders saved thousands of small business owners who were unable to get COVID-19 relief loans from big traditional lenders. Now, encouraged by getting applications processed within days rather than weeks, these owners are becoming repeat customers.
U.S. consumer borrowing rose by a strong $25.8 billion in March, the second-straight month of sizable gains.
As of Sunday, the Paycheck Protection Program had given out nearly 10.8 million loans worth more than $780 billion since April of last year.
The Indianapolis-based company has declared itself debt-free, but the lenders say they’re owed more than $8.5 million.
The rollout of COVID-19 vaccines and vast sums of government aid will accelerate global economic growth to a record high this year in a powerful rebound from the pandemic recession, the International Monetary Fund says in its latest forecast.
