The Small Business Administration (SBA) has reopened the E-Tran system for Paycheck Protection Program loan application submissions. Maryland banks and small businesses across the State have worked together to prepare to upload applications in this new round of funding and had been anxiously waiting for this program to restart. Unfortunately, due to access difficulties, most applications are still waiting to be uploaded.

Maryland Bankers Association’s (MBA) President and CEO Kathleen Murphy stated, “Banks of all sizes across Maryland have been reporting significant difficulties accessing the E-Tran system … While we deeply appreciate the herculean efforts of U.S. Treasury and SBA to launch and relaunch this massive program, within a very right timeframe, it is crucial that these technology access challenges be resolved as quickly as possible.”

“For the more than 26,000 Maryland small businesses that have received funding already, the Paycheck Protection Program has been a real lifeline,” said Murphy. “For those with pending applications, MBA’s member banks share the frustration and angst they are hearing from their small business clients.”

Illustrating the issue, an MBA member bank reported, “The SBA system is basically unavailable. We have gotten five of 80 PPP loan applications submitted in the past four hours.”

MBA urges the SBA to address the system access issues as quickly as possible. MBA will continue to monitor the status of SBA’s E-Tran system and will communicate to member banks and the SBA as needed.