Emergency plan: 4.3 billion requested by American companies

news-single-imgcaption" style="width:240px">Jovita Carranza, head of small business in the Trump administration, reported 13,669 loans requested by businesses. (Keystone)

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More than $ 4.3 billion in loans had been applied for late Friday in the United States by small and medium-sized businesses, faced with the coronavirus crisis, as part of the American recovery plan, according to figures from l ‘administration.

Jovita Carranza, head of small businesses in the Trump administration, reported shortly after 6 p.m. (11 p.m. Switzerland) on Twitter of 13,669 loans requested by companies, for a total amount of more than $ 4.3 billion.

Small and medium-sized businesses could start asking for fresh money on Friday morning, which should allow them to pay the salaries of their employees.

From next week

These loans, totaling up to $ 350 billion, are one of the flagship measures of the $ 2.2 trillion stimulus package, adopted by Congress and ratified by Donald Trump on March 27. Companies that use it and do not lay off their debt will be canceled.

“If we run out of money, we will return to Congress to get more cash for small businesses,” said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Friday evening on Fox Business.

“We think it will start next week in all the major banks,” he said.

Most of the requests have been made to community, that is to say local, banks. The largest banks have reported difficulties with administrative procedures.

JPMorganChase, the largest bank in the United States, said on its site that it “will probably not be able to start accepting the requests on Friday April 3”, but stressed on Friday that it has started to retrieve customer information.

Wells Fargo for his part said “work as fast as possible to be ready”, when Bank of America reported 60,000 requests at 6:00 p.m. GMT.

These funds are supposed to pay the wage bill or rent for eight weeks to allow restaurants, hair salons and other businesses to keep their workforce despite their closings.

The first effects of the coronavirus crisis were felt in March on the American economy, which destroyed 701,000 jobs, pushing unemployment up to 4.4%.

A quarter of US small businesses have been forced to close temporarily due to the sudden downturn in activity due to containment measures, according to a survey of March 25-28 published by the Chambers of Commerce on Friday .

And among those who are still active, 40% think they should close, at least temporarily, within two weeks.

Steven Mnuchin also assured again that money transfers to individuals would start within two weeks for households already identified by the administration.

“We are currently in the process of collecting other information,” he added. According to this component of the recovery plan, a family of 4 should thus receive $ 3,000. (awp)

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