Seattle small business owner in pursuit of PPP loan feels deserted by her bank, and she's not alone

Seattle public relations consultant Natalie Quick applied the first day she could for a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan even though she said her longtime bank didn't make it easy.

She found the link for the application through JPMorgan Chase website on Reddit, the social-sharing website where users submit information. New to Reddit, Quick stumbled across it as she searched for PPP information online.

The U.S. Small Business Administration said the emergency PPP is first come, first served, so Quick thought she was in a good position when she applied the first day, April 3. She later answered follow-up questions from employees at Chase.

"And that's all I heard," said Quick, who watched with millions of other business owners as the fund's $349 million was depleted in a matter of days while the economy continued to decline.

"I wondered how they could run out of money that quickly," Quick said.

Days later she got her answer in a New York Times article. In it, the bank said nearly all of the 8,500 commercial and private banking clients who applied for loans got them, while only 18,000 of more than 300,000 small-business banking customers who applied through Chase’s retail bank received funding. That's a success rate of just 6%.

A class-action lawsuit was filed against Chase last week over its handling of the PPP application process. But Chase isn't the only bank encountering a backlash from customers.

https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2020/04/28/jpmorgan-chase-ppp-loans-natalie-quick-sba.html?ana=e_ae_prem&j=90506629&t=Afternoon&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWWpSbE1UQmtaRFk0TlRWaCIsInQiOiJGUFc0VTF6WTFkc2JFWmRDdFZlalpFM2paWUJuODhQcktURWNwR3RcLysyOXF4MHZUYlRMaU5WYnlNK09uS1NiXC94a3JnSU1GckR5V1wvbjVoTDlvdFFcL1lDcjlSejB0UFFIZ1BDTFNVdllvbHd3VzVwXC9aSWlJdWdvV1U5anNQdGZZIn0%3D