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NAFCU Vice President of Legislative Affairs Brad Thaler voiced NAFCU’s views on the PPP program Tuesday in a letter to the House Small Business Committee prior to today’s hearing, “An Empirical Review of the Paycheck Protection Program.”

In the letter, Thaler commended Congress for reacting to challenges that arose from the pandemic by utilizing the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), improving access for credit unions with the program and streamlining the forgiveness process for small businesses in subsequent legislation.

“NAFCU and our credit union members continue to support the concept of expanding access to small dollar business loans post-PPP as credit unions have always focused on servicing this market,” wrote Thaler. “Credit unions have been recognized as doubling their efforts in providing small business lending post-recession, despite considerable consolidation in the marketplace and statutory limitations on member business lending (MBL).”

In addition, Thaler mentioned NAFCU’s support for the Member Business Loan Expansion Act, which eases credit unions to offer business loans under $100,0000 by ensuring they do not count toward the MBL cap. He also mentioned NAFCU’s advocacy in increasing the number of SBA lending partners “despite statutory limitations imposed on credit union’s ability to provide small business loans.”

“Early in the pandemic, 70 percent of NAFCU members that were not already involved in SBA lending but did participate in the PPP expressed an interest in becoming a regular SBA lender,” added Thaler. “Given this increased interest in SBA lending programs and the expected demand in small business lending, it is imperative that credit unions have all options available to provide capital for small business members.”

A livestream of the hearing will be available via YouTube and is scheduled to begin today at 10:00 a.m. Eastern. NAFCU will monitor the hearing and keep credit unions up-to-date via NAFCU Today.