Local banks help businesses with PPP program

Old National Bank and Comerica Bank offices in Manchester are still serving their clients who need assistance with PPP applications.

Manchester’s two branch bank offices, both Comerica Bank and Old National Bank, were instrumental in helping numerous local businesses to access the latest round of PPP loans.

“These are really nice numbers,” said Cindy Clark, Vice President Michigan Market at Manchester’s Comerica Bank branch. “It makes me proud to work for Comerica, for sure.”

A highlights page of “loans by market” provided by Comerica’s corporate office indicates that the bank processed approximately 13,000 PPP loan applications overall, and 100% of complete and eligible applications were approved. Eighty-one percent of loans were made to companies with fewer than 50 employees; 56 percent of loans made were to companies with fewer than 10 employees, with a total of $4.1 billion expected to be funded.

Asked how many local (Manchester) businesses were funded, Clark said she could not give specifics due to privacy, but the Manchester office did “quite a few” local loans.

Tammy Melcher, Banking Center Manager at Old National Bank in Manchester, said that as of early last week the Small Business Administration (SBA) reported that there was still $120 billion left to give out.

“Old National Bank is still taking applications, if there is a business that wants to take advantage of this funding,” she said. Anyone interested can call the Old National Bank PPP hotline at 1-800-731-2265 and hit * when the recording starts, or go to the website at www.oldnational.com.

This week, banks will be provided information on the forgiveness portion of the PPP funds, which will allow business to process their request to have funds forgiven that have already been received.

Melcher also said she didn’t have exact figures for how many businesses in Manchester were helped by the PPP funds, but she had more than 30 clients asking questions about the and she said that all who decided to apply, with the exception of a couple non-profits who did not qualify since they do not have employees, were approved for funding.

A statistics sheet from ONB indicates that 8,700 small businesses were assisted in this round of funding, supporting businesses of all sizes. Seventy-eight percent of loans were for less than $150,000; 97 percent were for less than $1 million.

As a credit union, American 1 does consumer loans only and does not deal with business accounts, so they were not involved in processing any PPP loans.

Congratulations to these local banks for helping the Manchester business community.

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by Marsha Chartrand

Marsha Johnson Chartrand, a founder, writer, and copy editor with the Manchester Mirror, is a 50-year resident of Manchester. She has a long history of volunteer and community involvement.