How Banks Can Successfully Navigate Risks Created by PPP

Within days of the international declaration of the pandemic, federal leaders tossed a lifeline to small businesses in the form of the Paycheck Protection Program. But before the ink was dry on the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which offered forgivable loans to help eligible American companies keep their lights turned on and pay their employees, banks were stepping into a minefield of risk.

What quickly became clear as the program rolled out – in addition to the realization that the process certainly would not be glitch-free given the existing conditions – was that banks with healthy risk management programs met the challenge with solid, well-managed lending processes. Rather than building origination processes from scratch, they steered their energy and resources toward conducting adequate scenario analyses, with a specific eye toward identifying unique risks and protecting their institutions during a time of unprecedented financial crisis.

After so many years of being subject to heavy regulation, you would expect that most financial institutions would have robust practices, policies, procedures and controls in place by now – and those should have been foundational in supporting PPP activity. What we’re finding out, however, is that many banks didn’t have the right controls in place – and now they could be paying the price with customers and regulators.

Navigating through Residual Risk

PPP presented participating lenders with a double-edged sword: Banks stood to earn massive amounts of origination fees (and potentially interest fees for serving unforgiven borrowers) on loans that were guaranteed by the government, which one would think would make them a safe source of revenue. The government also promised not to hold those very same banks liable if borrowers didn’t play by the rules. 

Of course, many financial institutions opted into the program with the mindset of helping their clients keep their heads above water, with a downstream impact of buoying their communities. At the time, no one could predict how long this black swan event might run. Now, only weeks into office, the Biden Administration has already pledged greater regulatory scrutiny.

But nearly a year after the first round of PPP funding was made available, some banks are struggling to stay ahead of litigation and regulatory scrutiny due to their processing, approval and distribution of the loans. Government oversight for financial hardship programs remains fresh in their minds from the Great Recession, as banks became accustomed, as a result of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, to looking over their shoulders at regulators and conducting rigorous stress testing. We can expect a similar legacy for PPP.

With 20/20 hindsight, we can closely identify risks left in PPP’s wake and provide strategies for banks on how to close those gaps. Let’s look at the issues and opportunities for banks to put themselves in the best position to respond to regulators, customers and legal challenges: 

Inaccurate PPP Interpretation: 

For most banks, risks were likely present before accepting the first applications. From the get-go, they should have known every action would fall under regulatory scrutiny, even as they waited out specific requirements under PPP. Banks will always be accountable for meeting intent, and they are simply expected to do the right thing.

Seven interim rules came out in the first month of PPP distribution. Did your bank pause to consider changes and course-correct along the way? Some banks struggled with different operational areas proceeding under different understandings of what they were expected to do, meaning processes were disparate – and the takeaway from that is always higher risk.

How to Address: Establish policies and procedures with a dynamic set of internal controls. As with any regulatory change, document your understanding of the law before you start to act. While an annual review is generally sufficient in normal times, increase the frequency in unexpected times – like a pandemic – reviewing your interpretation to assess whether your execution aligns with intent. Use time to ensure you have the foundational risk management framework in place to deliver an integrated enterprise approach.

Program Rollout Speed:

PPP promised a fast, easy route to getting cash to businesses that needed it most within just 10 days of applying. Getting operations geared up in an urgent moment most likely caused many banks to actually introduce more risk to their processes – including opportunities for fraud. For instance, many banks deployed employees from core functions to support PPP, which left those core functions without proper oversight or daily operation. Banks didn’t have the luxury to proceed cautiously, which is critical to preventing both mistakes and fraud. 

When tracking PPP’s development, my first reaction was hope that lenders were enacting super-robust processes and making sure they kept every single piece of documentation, because litigation was a certainty. Every process – new or adapted – must be accompanied by controls to ensure procedures and policies are followed, and well-managed banks should have documented every touchpoint, whether an applicant’s loan was approved or denied.

Did you keep your finger on the pulse after making lightning-speed changes to implement the new program? Within a mere six months of PPP rollout, the Department of Justice brought fraud charges against 82 individuals for loans totaling $250 million.

How to Address: Review all PPP process monitoring to understand performance while also looking for variations in other operations resulting from executing this short-term program. If you identify issues, look for root causes to ensure you’re implementing the right controls. And if you don’t have process monitoring, you’re at even greater risk – which should catapult remediation to the top of your priority list.

Documentation:

In traditional loan originations, banks spend more time validating customer data before making decisions. With the urgency of PPP, banks sought to mitigate risk by focusing on the customer relationships they already had. To comply with Know Your Client (KYC) rules, they could prove they recognized existing customers and were reasonably confident those business owners were asking for loans commensurate with their needs. This was a logical approach for many banks to help them protect the integrity of their lending program and meet PPP terms. While regulators have hinted at considering the unsettled environment when reviewing banks, your defense can’t rely on your expectation of leniency while you’re looking the other way at your practices.

PPP also put the responsibility on borrowers to validate the authenticity and accuracy of the supporting documents they submitted to prove payroll and rent or mortgage expenses – again offering a potential safety net for banks. But a well-managed enterprise doesn’t take shortcuts.

How to Address: Put your trusted and true loan origination practices to work. Continue to have documented procedures for validating customer information to support informed lending decisions.

Muddied Waters for Fair Lending:

Because of KYC regulatory requirements, many banks opened applications mostly to customers with current commercial relationships – which is a risk to building a diverse borrower portfolio. But it’s hard to ignore a recommendation that comes from the U.S. Treasury.

Left behind in the loan approval frenzy were women- and minority-owned businesses – a symptom of lingering hurdles in the banking industry. Those businesses were less likely to have the necessary documents for loan applications readily available, which put them further behind as they saw the PPP lifeline evaporate. Fortunately, federal leaders are working to close this gap, starting with setting aside $10 billion of the $310 billion allocated in the second round specifically for Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), which provide financial access to underserved communities.

Financial institutions must ensure they are delivering against their fiduciary responsibility to all of their clients and proactively balance lending activity – particularly to those they might not interact with frequently. To echo an earlier point, financial institutions have long faced regulatory accountability under the Community Reinvestment Act and various fair lending laws, so they should have practices in place to demonstrate they acted as fairly as they could with regard to PPP. Against the social injustice unrest of 2020, this issue becomes even more critical.

One unanswered question remains for regulators: Should banks be held accountable for responding to their customers on a first-come, first-served basis?

How to Address: Slice your PPP lending data to see the population you served, including the minority percentage and income level of the census tract, customer or not, and business type. The federal coronavirus subcommittee gave some credence to the idea that resources often go to the same people, as wealthier clients passed at twice the rate of the smallest businesses with the most dire financial predicaments. You need to understand your data and be prepared to defend any gaps in lending to underserved segments, as well as ensure your documentation around how you proactively reached out to all clients is in order.

Tarnishing Your Hard-Earned Reputation:

Regulations protect consumers from deceptive banking practices. Being cited for violating the terms of PPP – a shot in the arm for small businesses fighting for survival – could cause irreversible damage to a bank’s community standing.

How to Address: Continue to nurture a risk management culture where every employee shares responsibility in the well-managed operation of your bank. Start by setting expectations for your entire organization with clear internal controls, robust risk management practices, operational efficiency, and meaningful and actionable insights on your performance. 

Finally, we’ve arrived at the final stage of PPP for initial borrowers: seeking loan forgiveness. How well you adhered to sound practices for reviewing applications and loan amounts now becomes a question of whether you best positioned borrowers to benefit from forgiveness. When asked if you did the right thing, your defense starts and ends with showing you had a solid process in place and followed it to a “T.” You can’t prevent the attack, but your documentation should illustrate a thoughtful process designed to protect your customers.

Between continuing to lend under any additional rounds of PPP to serving customers in seeking loan forgiveness or paying on unforgiven loans, banks will be facing compliance hurdles – big and small – at every turn. Spinnaker can provide the industry expertise to move your institution’s PPP operations into compliance while also helping you develop a risk management framework that reinforces the integrity of every banking product and service you offer.