UPDATED: Nearly 110K Virginia businesses received PPP funds

SBA releases data identifying only 16K Va. recipients of forgivable relief loans

Published July 6, 2020 by Sydney Lake

The U.S. Small Business Administration has released a list of major recipients of its $659 billion Paycheck Protection Program small business relief program, with exact loan amounts redacted.

Of the nearly 110,000 small businesses that received funding in Virginia (including Virginia Business Media LLC), approximately 16,100 businesses in Virginia were named on the list of businesses that had benefited from the federal relief program, intended to assist small businesses meet payroll costs and make mortgage interest, rent and/or utilities payments due to the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Businesses had to hit a threshold of $150,000 in funding to be named on the list. Under that threshold, 93,000 Virginia businesses that had received funding were not named on the list released by the SBA on Monday. For the entire U.S., only 150,000 businesses were named on the list, while approximately 650,000 had received funding, according to Associated Press (AP) reports.

Virginia businesses and nonprofits took in between $9.5 billion to $18.2 billion through the PPP program, according to AP reports. The large range accounts for the government data not being entirely accurate, according to the AP.

On Tuesday, however, the Virginia Bankers Association (VBA) announced that Virginia applications totaled more than $12.6 billion, which supported more than 1 million jobs.

“Banks’ efforts have had a direct impact on the economy,” VBA President and CEO Bruce Whitehurst said in a statement. “Everyone from Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell to House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters have acknowledged that banks have been part of the solution to the economic dislocation caused by the pandemic.

“Banks and their employees have helped — and will continue to help — the nation through these extraordinary times.”

Several news organizations, including The Washington Post, Bloomberg LP, Dow Jones & Co. Inc., Pro Publica Inc. and The New York Times Co., sued the SBA in mid-May for the release of data regarding small businesses that had received funding. 

“Today’s release of loan data strikes the appropriate balance of providing the American people with transparency, while protecting sensitive payroll and personal income information of small businesses, sole proprietors, and independent contractors,” Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said in a Monday statement.

Businesses are sorted by loan range amounts. Ranges include $150,000 to $350,000; $350,000 to $1 million; $1 million to $2 million; $2 million to $5 million; and $5 million to $10 million. These categories account for approximately 75% of the loans that had been approved — but for loans less than $150,000, the SBA did not release business names or addresses. 

The SBA has supported more than 51 million jobs and more than 80% of all small business employees through the PPP program, Mnuchin said. According to SBA data released June 30, Virginia accounts 1 million of its jobs to small businesses. Of businesses receiving SBA loans in Virginia, reported that of estimated small business payroll, 72% was covered by PPP loans.

“We are particularly pleased that 27% of the program’s reach in low and moderate income communities which is in proportion to percentage of population in these areas,” Mnuchin said in a statement. “The average loan size is approximately $100,000, demonstrating that the program is serving the smallest of businesses.”

Data includes information regarding the range of the loan amount, the full company name, company address, type of company or corporation, the gender of the person who owns the company, the number of employees, the date the loan had been approved and the bank from which the loan had been processed.

U.S. data is sorted alphabetically by state and Virginia data is sorted in descending order, according to loan bracket amount.

Click below to download the data released Monday by the SBA:

U.S. Data  (67MB, .xslx file)

Virginia-specific data (2 MB, .xslx file)

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