We Were Economic First Responders

The Paycheck Protection Program was the largest economic rescue program in American history. Go behind the scenes with the bankers who delivered the relief. Coming soon from the American Bankers Association.

In a matter of days, bankers rallied to deliver hundreds of billions of dollars in loans to support Americans' jobs amid the coronavirus pandemic. The stakes: the survival of the small business economy on which every bank and community relies. On the first episode of "We Were Economic First Responders," a new podcast series from the American Bankers Association, bankers tell the story of how they geared up to make Paycheck Protection Program loans, despite contradictory or non-existent regulatory guidance, customer confusion and the challenges of remote work and social distancing. 

Round one of the Paycheck Protection Program funds, $349 billion, was exhausted in under two weeks. Bankers had worked 80-hour weeks, on weekends and through evenings, to deliver the funds. For bankers, the speed, unpredictability, E-Tran challenges and ever-changing SBA process represented "culture shock." On the second episode of "We Were Economic First Responders," a new podcast series from the American Bankers Association, bankers discuss how they overcame the hurdles of round one. As a new round of funds was debated in Congress, banks began gearing up to do it all over again—and some banks locked out of round one because of technology challenges redoubled their efforts to deliver relief to their customers.

The third and final episode of "We Were Economic First Responders," a new podcast series from the American Bankers Association, explores how bankers scaled up teams and technology to deliver Round 2 the Paycheck Protection Program. Banks helped customers whose nonbank lenders couldn't complete the loans, and they saw overcame technology challenges to get the job done. The episode also examines the early results of the PPP and the pending questions around loan forgiveness. Listen to the whole series at aba.com/ppppodcast.