The Big Banks Win Again
Bank of America Plaza - Atlanta
Image by J. Geierman

The Paycheck Protection Program developed by Congress and the Treasury Dept is up and running today, first at Bank of America; many other community banks are also dispersing loans. However, there is a catch. After taking the billions in largess from the U.S. taxpayer (that means your money), hiking interest rates for the product and other goodies from Treasury, Bank of America has decided that only its lending customers get to survive. If you only have a business deposit account at the bank you're out of luck for the time being.

We'd like to ask Bank of America where it says that is allowed in the legislation behind the Paycheck Protection Program. Somehow we also suspect the bank's largest customers are getting taken care of first; if you're a small business owner that banks with BOA, paid your bills and never took out a loan, but now living day to day and worried about your survival, well you're out of luck. Sorry, go home and die.

But a recurring shock as millions of small business owners head to these bank websites to apply for the PPP funds is that contrary to the SBA's guidance that any small business with 500 or less employees can apply, going to lender portals shows that only a very narrow subset of America's millions in small businesses are be eligible, reported Zero Hedge.

You can read more about this stunning development here at Zero Hedge, titled "Millions of Small Businesses Stunned to Learn They Are Not Eligible for Bailout Loans."