Commercial Banks and PPP loan. The fix was in?

While I am grateful to be healthy and safe, I am increasingly concerned about finances. My dental office has been closed for over a month and I envision that it will be closed  at least until June or  even later. I applied for a ppp loan through my bank Chase. Chase is a large commercial bank and I do all my banking there.  I erroneously believed that my loyalty would be rewarded in difficult times. A colleague has an account at Chase but he also maintains a business and credit line with M&T bank which is smaller and more community based. He applied through M&T for his ppp loan and was funded. My application was initially rejected by Chase but  after 4-5 days of sustained effort I was able to make my application. Good right?

Not so good. My application is pending and I was informed that all the funding has run out. In addition I received a follow up email informing me that I am in a queue waiting for a second round of expected funding but I should keep in mind that there are over 100,000 pending applications ahead of me. Their emails do not sound encouraging and after more than a week my application has still not even been reviewed. To be fair I should confide that I run my business out of a "personal account" that I have maintained continuously for over 36 years. At my personal bankers advice I set up a business account in March, so that I would be able to apply for the SBA loan online. I explained  to the Chase representative helping me that I am actually a business client and have business loans with Chase.  Yesterday she confided that although "my business is important to the bank"that Chase may not be reviewing my pending application because it hasn't been approved by her boss.

Today (April 23rd) I got tired of waiting for Chase to move my paperwork forward. A new round of funding is about to be passed by Congress. I did a Google search of banks writing SBA PPP loans for people who don't already have bank accounts with the lender. Almost all of the banks required that the borrower had a bank account with them before February 12. I found that Citizen's Bank was accepting applications from new customers and I applied online and had my forms uploaded in a couple of hours and was informed that my application is under review. While I'm not sure that I will have an SBA PPP loan funded, I already feel like Citizens in not just pushing paper around and I am more hopeful that it may actually process my loan Application. (I called back after a week and spoke to a representative who  informed that my application was already sent out to the SBA and I would be hearing  back from them. Three days later I was emailed that my loan was approved and the email asked me to signed the electronic paperwork and return it to Citizens so that they would be able to deposit the approved loan in my bank account).

My cynical side has a  suspicion that Chase was in no hurry to process their small business PPP loan applications and may have given priorities to much larger "small businesses". It turns out that I might be on the right track since  according to an article in the Wall Street Journal " JPMorgan Chase JPM -3.65% & Co. issued more than $115 million in forgivable loans to at least two dozen publicly traded companies, according to SEC filings. "  

After reading this article,  I believe that I will have to start another account with another smaller bank like M&T that may  treat their smaller small business clients more fairly.

When I mentioned this to my accountant  (He has an account with M&T) he tried to cheer me up "Citibank was even worse". That didn't make me feel better.  While there has been a lot of talk by large companies "being there for us in these troubled time" actions speak louder than words!  I am  disappointed  and will think about making changes when things normalize .

The Wall Street Journal article seemed to lend credence to my feelings. It reported that "The small businesses that received aid under the federal government's $350 Billion rescue program weren't always the ones with the greatest needs or the best chance to survive the coronavirus pandemic. whether a firm made the cut often came down to how and where it banked"

Ironically, reading that article actually made me feel better, since it's clear that  I am not that paranoid and certainly not alone. Millions of us are suffering financially because of business closures and are dealing with the fact that not  all the help promised is forthcoming.

Most of the people I know are worried. Almost every day I get calls from colleagues who are worried and seem perversely reassured that I am worried too (misery loves company?). Fortunately for me I have other activities to distract me. My day is spent attending Zoom classes at NYU Dental School, talking on the phone with friends and cooking  with whatever ingredients we have for preparing meals. I am sure that If we stay safe (and sane), this too shall pass, but rest assured although I may forgive, I will not forget.