The SBA has officially withdrawn the loan necessity questionnaire for PPP loans made of $2 million or more.
First rolled out in November 2020, the loan necessity questionnaire focused on the “good faith” certification that businesses had to make when applying for PPP loans of $2M or more. The questionnaire also asked for significant documentation about how businesses subsequently did after receiving the loan. It was widely criticized for slowing the forgiveness process for larger loans.
Effective immediately, SBA will no longer request the questionnaires for any PPP loan reviews, including for-profit and non-profit borrowers.
To further streamline and accelerate the overall PPP loan forgiveness process, the SBA plans to roll out a new PPP loan forgiveness portal that would allow at least some small businesses to apply for forgiveness on an (assumingly simpler) SBA platform instead of directly with their lender. We’ll cover this more as details emerge.
If you’re in the process of PPP loan forgiveness and have questions about how this latest development impacts your business, please reach out to your BGW team for help!