CHARLOTTE, N.C. — If you owned a business in any other major city, you'd have a better chance of securing coronavirus relief through the Paycheck Protection Program, according to a study by SmartAsset.
Smart Asset analyzed responses from the Census Bureau's Small Business Pulse Survey and found during the survey week ending on May 30, the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia metro was the only major metro with a PPP loan acceptance rate of less than 90%.
While the 88% acceptance rate was a significant improvement over the 49% acceptance rate four weeks prior, SmartAsset ranked Charlotte 50 out of 50 among major cities.
"While our analysis did not examine the underlying factors that affected PPP loan acceptance rates, logistics could influence the acceptance rates," SmartAsset said. "Specifically, loans are given out by local banks, not directly by the federal government or the Small Business Administration (SBA), meaning that allocations of funding by local lenders in the Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord area may have been overwhelmed by PPP loan demand and not able to process all the applications as quickly."
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