ADVERTISEMENT

Wells Fargo Sent Over 100,000 Small Business Relief Applications

Wells Fargo Sent Over 100,000 Small Business Relief Applications

(Bloomberg) -- Wells Fargo & Co. submitted more than 100,000 applications to the Small Business Administration’s relief program Monday.

The firm continues to prepare and submit packets “24 hours a day,” according to an internal memo from small-business head Steve Troutner reviewed by Bloomberg.

The San Francisco-based bank said it is expecting an “uneven” pace of approvals from the SBA as a flood of applicants slows processing times for all lenders participating in the program.

“Thus far, we’ve received responses on our submissions at the rate of only about 80 per hour,” Troutner said in the memo. “While that pace is more than a little frustrating for us all to see, we’ve heard from peers across the industry and they are seeing similar or worse response rates.”

A company spokeswoman confirmed the contents of the memo.

The average loan size Wells Fargo is sending to the SBA is less than $110,000, and 90% of the applications are for companies with fewer than 25 employees, according to the memo.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.