Economic Help

BNC Salutes First Responders;

Works to Offer Economic Help

by Scott Spillman, AZ Bank President

While the pandemic affected our health and safety, it also affected the health and safety of our economy. As the government moved quickly to provide financial assistance to businesses and consumers, so did the banking system.

In keeping with the theme of this issue, BNC National Bank is proud to salute all of our essential workers who performed critical roles to keep

Glendale functioning during the pandemic. Clearly, our health care workers and first responders deserve our heartfelt gratitude for their tireless efforts of providing treatment to patients and protecting us from viral spread.

So, too, do the thousands of essential workers in food and agriculture, grocery stores and C-stores, mail and package delivery, public and private transit, state and local governments, and funeral homes and manufacturing. These workers’ jobs required them to face the public in close-proximity throughout the pandemic to keep us fed, mobile, informed and connected. We thank you all.

We also would like to salute another group of essential workers whose efforts have perhaps gone under the radar — bankers. While the pandemic affected our health and safety, it also affected the health and safety of our economy. As the government moved quickly to provide financial assistance to businesses and consumers, so did the banking system.

Banks mobilized their resources with alacrity to deliver this financial assistance to struggling businesses across the country. Banks provided a stimulus life line to enable business owners to keep employees on their payrolls and offset the drastic rise in unemployment that occurred at the onset of the pandemic.

Thousands of banks delivered millions of PPP (Payment Protection Program) loans totaling hundreds of billions of dollars. This did not happen automatically. Many banks established entire departments to deliver PPP loans, and other, smaller banks, such as BNC pivoted and devoted the majority of its lending resources for the effort to supply as much relief to businesses as quickly as possible.

Our dedicated staff and thousands of others drove the empty freeways to work 12-hour days, seven days a week while the first two rounds of PPP money was available, working against the clock to serve business owners as quickly as we could.

We know the process was not smooth for everyone, as it was a massive, unprecedented program that changed on the fly. We gave it our all.

While the overall economic situation is improving, there are still many businesses continuing to suffer financial hardship or struggling to recover from the depths of the pandemic-related slowdown in the economy. There are still programs that can assist businesses in need.

Although the PPP loan program has expired, there are still avenues for businesses to access capital. The Small Business Administration has made enhancements to the 7(a) loan program (waiving borrower fees and providing payment assistance). The Restaurant Revitalization Fund has $28.6 billion available for grants (RestaurantsAct.com), and some employers may qualify for the Employee Retention Credit of up to $14-$15K per employee (www.irs.gov).

If you have questions about any of these programs, BNC would be happy to assist or refer you to someone who can.