Treasury Dept. to disclose details on small business loan recipients

The Small Business Administration (SBA) and Treasury Department announced Friday that they will provide data and information regarding borrowers that participated in the taxpayer-funded Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), reversing previous opposition to doing so.

The disclosure will apply to companies that received loans of more than $150,000. Firms that got less than $150,000 will not have their names revealed.

“We value transparency and our fiduciary responsibility to ensure American taxpayer funds are used appropriately. This responsibility goes together with the steps we are now taking to provide needed public information while protecting entrepreneurs’ personally identifiable information, such as a home address associated with their business loan,” said SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza.

The announcement comes after weeks of negotiations with members of both parties in Congress who clamored for more transparency over how PPP funds were disbursed. The arrangement appears to mark an agreement that will disclose the names of many, but not all, loan recipients.

“I am pleased that we have been able to reach a bipartisan agreement on disclosure which will strike the appropriate balance of providing public transparency, while protecting the payroll and personal income information of small businesses, sole proprietors, and independent contractors,” said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

The Trump administration has flip-flopped over PPP transparency — the SBA initially said earlier this year that it would release “individual loan data,” but Mnuchin pushed back on that in a Senate hearing this month, saying business names and loan amounts would remain hidden because the administration considered them proprietary.