The Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, could be a great opportunity for some fintechs to shine. Square, PayPal and Intuit have all been approved by the U.S. federal government’s Small Business Administration to provide aid in the form of loans, according to a report by TechCrunch.
The PPP program has been plagued with delays as RIAs and others interested in helping their own small business clients have rushed to apply for loans. Long wait times on calls to lenders and unclear guidance have made a stressful process even more fraught, according to some advisors.
On Friday, PayPal received approval to deploy capital and expertise to small businesses. “The first loans have been applied for and issued. We expect more loans to be issued in the coming days,” said Dan Schulman, president and CEO of PayPal, in a statement.
Intuit launched a feature called “Intuit Aid Assist” to help U.S.-based businesses, self-employed individuals, contractors, freelancers and gig workers navigate between different business relief programs and assess loan eligibility. On Friday, the firm’s QuickBooks Capital nonbank lender received the green light to disburse PPP funds.
The latest fintech to join the list, Square, received approval on Monday and plans to make loan applications available this week, according to Jackie Reses, the head of Square Capital. That application will be available on the Square Dashboard.
Stripe, a fintech familiar to advisors for its association with Michael Kitces and Alan Moore’s startup AdvicePay, has also argued it should be included as an online lender permitted to disburse PPP loans. A trade group, Financial Innovation Now, has written to legislative leaders noting that “our companies could rapidly disburse approximately $100 billion in capital to vulnerable small businesses, in many cases within weeks.”