How That COVID Stimulus Bailed Out Big Business

He now informed the bankers that in order to prevent further wreckage, they were being bailed out, whether they liked it or not.

This time the banks themselves weren't bailed out-their executives still wince at the memory-but they were deputized by the federal government to distribute $349 billion in stimulus through the Paycheck Protection Program.

Retail banking is what we typically think of when we skip down to the local PNC branch: deposit accounts, ATMs, and individual loans, whereas commercial banking deals with larger institutions and their corresponding services like benefits plans.

Reduced to shorthand, retail banking refers to small businesses, many of them run by single persons or families, while commercial banking signifies larger companies, corporations, even governments.

Bank of America initially refused any loans to businesses with which it didn't have a prior lending relationship; it later rescinded that policy amid customer fury, though it continued to deny applications from those who had borrowed from other banks.

As reports of lending inequality spread throughout the media, House Democrats, led by Congressman Jim Clyburn, sent a letter to the banks, the Treasury, and the SBA, expressing concern and demanding that the identities of recipients of generous loans be disclosed.

According to Congressman Clyburn, the government didn't even provide the banks with implementation guidance until two weeks after loan applications had started coming in and one day before the first round of money ran out.
 

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/how-that-covid-stimulus-bailed-out-big-business/