SBA Names Firms Getting $150,000 or More in PPP Loans

Illustration of Covid virus next to Main Street and Wall Street signs

This story has been corrected to reflect that about 650,000 entities took loans of $150,000 or more, not $150 million or more.

The Small Business Administration has posted details on some 4.9 million business loans tied to the $669 billion Paycheck Protection Program, which recently extended its application deadline to Aug. 8.

The SBA information released Monday includes the names of about 650,000 entities taking loans of $150,000 or more. These larger businesses, such as P.F. Chang's China Bistro, have taken nearly 75% of the PPP funding that has been allocated.

The loans are capped at 2.5 times a firm's monthly payroll expenses, up to $10 million.

SBA information on loans going to some 4.2 million smaller firms excludes their names but includes their industry sector, number of employees and other data.

The Trump administration agreed to release some data on borrowers last month. News groups such as Bloomberg and ProPublica are suing for access to the full database under the Freedom of Information Act.

The government is giving congressional committee access to all borrowers' names upon request, according to a Bloomberg report.

By the Numbers

Companies across the country have returned or canceled over $30 billion in PPP loans, a senior administration official told CNBC on Monday. These funds are part of the $2 trillion CARES Act, passed earlier this year in response to the COVID-19 economic crisis.

The nearly 70 public companies that borrowed through the program have returned some $436 million, according to FactSquared, which says the level of gross loans to public firms was nearly $1.4 billion.

From April 3 to June 30, $521.5 billion of loans to private and public entities had been approved. The government says this funding supports roughly 51 million jobs.

The average loan size so far is about $106,700. Some 5,460 lenders have participated in the program, which is run jointly by the SBA and Treasury Department.

The PPP still has about $132 billion in funding for loans.

Applicants in California received some $68 billion, followed by those in Texas with $41.1 billion, and New York with $38.3 billion.

Naming Names

Loan recipients include the law firm Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, led by antitrust litigator David Boies, and Newsmax Media Inc., run by Trump donor Christopher Ruddy, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Several wealth management firms have disclosed their own PPP loan arrangements.

The news outlet Politico also combed through the data on Monday and disclosed that groups such the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute and Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation took out PPP loans of $350,000 to $1 million.

The Association of Former Members of Congress borrowed between $150,000 and $300,000.

Other entities taking the loans include the Prime Rib steakhouse on K Street in Washington (between $2 million and $5 million) and anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform Foundation ($150,000 to $350,000).