[W]ith just hours to go before launch, it wasn't until Thursday night that banks received their 31 pages of guidance from Treasury on how to lend the money — and some haven't even decided whether they can participate on the opening day.
In a strongly worded statement, one of the nation's biggest lenders said the much-touted relief program for small business owners wasn't ready for prime time.
"Financial institutions like ours are still awaiting guidance from the SBA and the U.S. Treasury," Chase Bank said in an email to business customers, referring to the Small Business Administration. "As a result, Chase will most likely not be able to start accepting applications on Friday, April 3rd, as we had hoped."
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The rules ask for small businesses to upload their payroll statements, but with no uniform way to report them, some of the statements will have to be eyeballed individually. Then there are concerns about verifying the information and the potential for fraud or just simple mistakes.
Lenders are gun-shy after the industry was held liable for billions of dollars in fines and lawsuits following the rollout of relief efforts after the 2008 financial crisis.
From the article:
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