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M&T Bank announced Monday that an updated tally of its lending activity under the federal Paycheck Protection Program showed the bank had disbursed more than $1.6 billion to 11,314 businesses in central and western Maryland.
M&T said that:
- The average loan size was about $147,000;
- More than two-thirds of loans were for less than $100,000, and fewer than one-fifth of the loans were for more than $200,000;
- About two-thirds of loans were for businesses with 10 or fewer employees, while about 95 percent of loans went to businesses with fewer than 50 people; and,
- For the most recent round of applications, the average loan size was about $94,400.
The figures do not include loans made in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties or on the state’s Eastern Shore.
The PPP was the federal government’s major effort to shore up small businesses during the pandemic. The program was hugely popular but also was frequently criticized, particularly during its early iterations, for being hard to access by minority businesses and by those who didn’t have existing relationships with lenders.
A series of program revisions – including some designed to help businesses obtain loan forgiveness – were made by the Small Business Administration, the agency that operated the PPP.
All told, the PPP extended $788 billion in loans to almost 11.2 million businesses across the country, the agency said. In Maryland, more than 176,000 recipients received $14.7 billion.
The SBA announced in early May that it had run out of funds and was closed to applications from most lenders.
