New Rule Requires Lenders to Maintain PPP Records for 10 Years

August 22, 2024

Delaney Sexton
Contributing Editor

New Rule Requires Lenders to Maintain PPP Records for 10 Years

Effective now, an interim rule lengthens the required records retention for PPP in order to meet the requirements of other legislation. Lenders must keep PPP records for ten years from the date of final disposition of each individual PPP loan. A previous rule extended the statute of limitations for criminal charges and civil enforcement actions for alleged PPP fraud to ten years after the offense. It is important to maintain records to support enforcement actions against alleged PPP fraudsters.

This rule applies to PPP loan applications that were withdrawn, approved, denied, or canceled. Lenders also need to keep all other records for PPP loans with an outstanding balance, that have been forgiven, and that are in repayment or have been paid in full by the borrower.

SBA put the rule into effect immediately to “allow [PPP] lenders to adjust their systems and processes as soon as possible in order to comply with the newly extended records retention period. If SBA were to follow the advance notice-and-public-comment process, that would delay issuance of the rule by at least three months, during which time records that need to be preserved for law enforcement purposes are at risk of loss.”

While the rule is effective immediately, SBA will be accepting comments on the interim final rule until September 23, 2024. Comments will be taken into consideration when determining if any revisions to the rule must be made.

The rule will be published in the Federal Register tomorrow.

Source:
Federal Register