Lake City Bank announced today that the bank has received approval on 1,677 client loans totaling $530 million under the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program. The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) authorized up to $349 billion in forgivable loans to small businesses to pay their employees during the COVID-19 crisis. The Small Business Administration (SBA) began accepting applications under the program on Friday, April 3, 2020, and Lake City Bank filed its first application on behalf of a client that morning. The bank expects to complete funding of these commitments under the program by the end of this week.

The SBA and the United States Treasury Department formally announced the PPP on March 31, 2020 as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (the CARES Act). Upon announcement, the SBA and Treasury Department indicated that the Paycheck Protection Program was initiated as a “robust” mobilization effort of banks and other lending institutions to provide small businesses with $349 billion in much-needed capital. The SBA announced that it had closed the application window on Thursday, April 16, 2020 when the full amount of the program was committed.

“When the PPP program was first announced, we immediately mobilized a team of Lake City Bank staff from our Commercial Banking, Credit Administration, Retail Banking and Loan Operations groups,” said David M. Findlay, President and Chief Executive Officer. “The team rapidly came together to develop a plan to help our existing clients prepare for and apply to this critical loan program designed to retain and pay their employees through this crisis.”

Findlay added, “Within three days of the formal PPP announcement, we submitted our first application on behalf of a client located in one of our Northern Indiana markets and received approval from the SBA that same day.”

Eric H. Ottinger, Executive Vice President of Commercial Banking, commented “The Lake City Bank team that came together to organize this program brought representation from partners across the bank. Everyone focused on quickly working with our clients to gather the necessary information to facilitate these loans and get the money in our client’s accounts as quickly as possible to help them retain their employees and cover certain operating expenses.”

Findlay added, “With the Lake City Bank team working everywhere from their kitchen tables to our disaster recovery sites, we came together quickly and cohesively to do what we always do, and that is to take care of our clients. The volume of interest and applications has been extraordinary and we are very pleased that we were able to take care of 99% of our clients who completed the application process when the SBA closed the application portal.”

“While the SBA is not currently accepting applications from any lenders to make PPP loans, it has been widely reported that Congress may authorize expanded PPP funding to continue to meet the payroll needs of small businesses struggling during the Coronavirus pandemic. Lake City Bank will continue to work with our existing clients to gather information necessary for an application should the SBA reopen the program with additional funding,” added Ottinger.

Lake City Bank, a $5.0 billion bank headquartered in Warsaw, Indiana, is the sixth largest bank headquartered in the state, and the largest bank 100% invested in Indiana. Lake City Bank operates 50 branch offices in northern and central Indiana, delivering technology-driven solutions in a client-centric way to individuals and businesses. The bank is the single bank subsidiary of Lakeland Financial Corporation (Nasdaq Global Select/LKFN).