Oklahoma Banks Working 24/7 To Process Small Business Aid

The rush is on for small businesses across the country to apply for the second round of the Paycheck Protection Program.

“We know there is a finite amount of money,” BancFirst Commercial Capital President Kent Faison said. “So, we want to take advantage while we can.”

His bank has employees working around the clock on the forgivable first come, first serve federal loans.

“The last program we did, we were keying in on Thursday, and all of a sudden it said no more, so it was done,” Faison said. “We will work up until the point that it does again.”

Before the program ran out of money the first go around, the federal government approved more than $4.6 billion in loans for Oklahoma businesses alone.

“Seventy-five percent of the proceeds must be used for payroll. The remaining 25% can be used for rent, it can be used for utilities, or interest on the mortgage debt. If you use it for those four categories then the loan will be forgiven,” Faison said.

Small businesses and nonprofits can get paid up to two and a half times their monthly payroll.

Fasion said BancFirst processes more Small Business Administration loans than any other bank it the state. He said this is unlike anything the bank has ever seen before.

“Where we normally do 40 to $50 million a year, we did $828 million over that first roll out,” he said.

They said the money approved by President Trump Friday will likely be gone in the next three to four days.

“Make an application, go to your bank and make sure that you have a piece of this pie at some point. This is going to go quickly,” Fasion said.

You can find more information on the Paycheck Protection Program here.