Data sheds more light on federal Paycheck Protection Program loans. Search it here.
The federal government has released more details about the $12 billion in loans North Carolina companies received through the Paycheck Protection Program, designed to keep small businesses afloat amid the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The U.S. Small Business Administration released nationwide data on the program Tuesday night following a successful Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by a coalition of national media organizations, including The Washington Post and others. In contrast to a limited data set the agency published in July, the update includes the precise loan amounts of the program’s largest recipients as well as the names of firms that received $150,000 or less.
Although guaranteed by the SBA, the loans themselves come from hundreds of U.S. banks. But the agency can forgive the loans if companies use the money for eligible expenses and to keep their employees on payroll.
As journalists and watchdog groups discovered in July, data on the program is plagued with errors, including inaccurate loan details and missing information on everything from demographic information to the number of jobs reportedly saved. The SBA has said its data “reflects the information submitted by lenders.”
Reporting from the N&O earlier this year found that several businesses in the government data didn’t actually receive funding, and others reported the loan amounts were incorrect. The N&O is still working to analyze the data from the SBA’s latest release and verify its accuracy.
But so far, the agency’s data shows North Carolina companies received about $12 billion from the program, spread across about 130,000 loans.
About 31% of that money went to smaller loans of less than $150,000. That’s about on par with nationwide figures calculated by The Washington Post.
An N&O analysis shows health care firms made up the largest group of North Carolina recipients through the program, claiming about $1.7 billion in loans, or about 14% of the total. That industry was followed closely by construction and manufacturing. The lodging/food service and retail industries, both of which have been slammed by the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, made up about 9% of the loan total each.
The data lists a dozen North Carolina companies approved for the maximum value of $10 million in loans.
Search through our database to see which companies in North Carolina received PPP loans, according to the SBA.
Editor’s note: Numerous errors have been found in the original SBA database, as reported here. The News & Observer is providing access to the SBA’s new database, but is still working to verify its accuracy. If you find errors, please let us know by sending an email to mtdukes@newsobserver.com or draynor@newsobserver.com.
This story was originally published December 2, 2020 at 3:36 PM.
