Bankers and PPP
A profile of Kentucky Bankers and PPP in early 2021 for the Lane Report.
I know how to ask questions and write sentences, but sometimes the subject matter is so far away from my wheelhouse as to be in another ocean and there isn't even an actual boat, much less a wheelhouse.
The word tranche, for example? Never heard of it before this assignment. PPP? Turns out it's not related to PPE at all.
So I searched and researched and went down all the rabbit holes, learning about the Paycheck Protection Program and deciding I didn't need to define tranche for myself or for the readers (a particular pool of money and resources, something-something).
And I learned about the panic of 1819 (and 1837, 1873, 1893, 1901, 1907, among others), the National Currency Act of 1863, the Banking Act of 1933, the establishment of the FDIC and the SEC in 1934. That would be the Securities and Exchange Commission, not the other SEC, the Southeastern Conference, which was—get this, founded around the same time!
Also, these bankers in Kentucky—and I'm assuming elsewhere—worked long after banker's hours to help customers through the PPP paperwork, and they were making these loans out of their own capital, with the promise of federal reimbursement.
I remember when I was growing up, my grandmother would say, "There are two people you should always have in your life: a banker and an automobile mechanic."
Here’s the online version of this article on Small Business Relief During COVID-19 as it appeared in the March 2021 issue of the Lane Report.
https://www.lanereport.com/139287/2021/03/feature-story-small-business-relief-during-covid-19/