WASHINGTON — Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman, head of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and the voice for America’s 32.5 million small businesses in President Biden’s Cabinet, directed the Agency to provide additional deferment of principal and interest payments for existing COVID Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program borrowers for a total of 30 months deferment from inception on all approved COVID EIDL loans. The extended deferment period will provide additional flexibility to small business owners impacted by the pandemic, especially those in hard-hit sectors managing disruption with recent variants, as well as recent supply chain and inflation challenges amid a growing economic recovery.
Since its inception, the COVID EIDL program, a federal disaster relief loan, has allocated more than $351 billion in relief aid to 3.9 million borrowers, including to the smallest of small businesses from historically underserved, disadvantaged communities.
Key information regarding deferment:
- This deferment extension is effective for all COVID-EIDL Loans approved in calendar years 2020, 2021, and 2022. Loans now have a total deferment of 30 months from the date of the Note. Interest will continue to accrue on the loans during the deferment.
- Borrowers may make partial or full payments during the deferment period but are not required to. The SBA recommends using www.pay.gov.
- The SBA will not send monthly SBA Form 1201 payment notices; however, the SBA will send regular payment reminders via email.
- Existing COVID EIDL borrowers can find account balances and payment due dates in the SBA Capital Access Financial System (CAFS) and learn how to set up an account in the CAFS system by logging in to Capital Access Financial System (sba.gov).
- Deferments may result in balloon payments. The deferment will not stop any established Preauthorized Debit (PAD) or recurring payments on the loan. COVID-EIDL Borrowers with an SBA established PAD must contact their SBA servicing center to stop recurring payments during the extended deferment period. COVID-EIDL borrowers who have established a PAD through Pay.Gov or any other bill pay service are responsible for terminating recurring payments during the extended deferment period.
- After the deferment period ends, COVID-EIDL borrowers will be required to make regular principal and interest payments beginning 30 months from the date of the Note.
Application Process and Fraud Control Enhancements
In addition to the policy enhancements, the SBA has invested in optimized processes and increased capacity to improve the customer service experience for applicants. Directed by Administrator Guzman to swiftly and drastically enhance COVID EIDL, the revamped management team implemented new processes and performance management, such as prioritizing personnel for COVID EIDL and increasing the average number of applications decisions made. At the time, the SBA accelerated daily processing of loan increases from close to 2,000 applications to more than 37,000 applications. Loan officer productivity also went from 1.86 applications per day to 15 applications per day. As a result of these increased loan review rates, the 600,000+ loan increase backlog was cleared, and new applications were processed immediately.
At the same time, and to ensure taxpayer dollars are used to support businesses that need COVID EIDL funding most, the SBA increased fraud controls and is working in collaboration with the SBA Inspector General to closely monitor the program.
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