SBA Hot Topic Tuesday – 85% of PPP Lenders Have Unresolved Hold Codes 

February 2, 2021

Caity Roach
Editor

SBA Hot Topic Tuesday – 85% of PPP Lenders Have Unresolved Hold Codes 

Data collected during the Coleman Report Live daily show reveals important industry metrics for SBA lenders.  This week’s polls show continued industry-wide frustration with PPP hold codes.

While reviewing first draw PPP loans, anomalies were identified by the SBA in approximately 4.7% of the lender-submitted data. Since these anomalies could indicate that the borrower was ineligible for all or part of their first draw PPP loan, the SBA initially declined any PPP second draw application from a borrower who had a flag on their first draw loan. As a result, over half (59%) of Coleman Report Live daily viewers indicated that they had a PPP second draw loan denied. 

To address this problem, the SBA updated the PPP Portal on Wednesday, January 27, 2020, so that anomalies would receive a hold message that provided the lender with the reason for the hold and examples of documentation that may assist in resolving the issue. Despite making these changes, over 85% of lenders polled on Monday’s Coleman Report Live daily show stated that they still had unresolved issues preventing them from approving some of their borrowers’ second draw loans. 

Here are some of the other findings related to PPP hold codes from this week’s polls:

  • Most (44%) lenders have had between 1-2% of their borrowers’ PPP second draw loan applications denied. However, one out of twenty lenders say they have had over 10% of their borrowers’ PPP second draw loan applications denied.

  • Only 29% of lenders have been able to clear a hold code that is preventing their borrower from obtaining a second draw PPP loan.

  • 72% of PPP lenders do not know how to resolve a hold code.

  • More than 3 out of 5 PPP lenders have had to use the SBA’s contact emails (found in the appendix of the most recent SOP 50 10 6) or the PPP lender support messaging system in the PPP portal to resolve a hold code.

  • 49% of PPP lenders say that the SBA is taking over a week to process PPP Forgiveness applications (primarily due to unresolved holds and errors). 

To learn how to resolve PPP hold codes that are preventing your borrowers from getting approved for a second draw PPP loan, sign up for Coleman’s new webinar on Thursday, February 11, 2021, at 2:00 pm ET.