WASHINGTON — The American Bankers Association is calling on the Treasury Department to provide more details about rejected applications for the Small Business Lending Fund.
In a white paper released last week, Treasury said it denied funding for nearly 60% of applicants, the majority of which did not meet the program's minimum statutory requirements.
It awarded just $4.3 billion of the $30 billion that Congress allocated. It must distribute the funding by the program's Sept. 27 expiration date.
"We strongly encourage Treasury, in concert with the respective federal banking regulators, to take advantage of the time remaining before the program expires to optimize banker participation, including providing a more detailed explanation of the Treasury's concerns and how banks might address those concerns and be able to participate in this initiative," ABA President Frank Keating wrote in a letter dated Tuesday to Jason Tepperman, the head of the SBLF program. "We are eager that the SBLF not fall short of achieving its potential."
