NYC’s Small Business Loan Program Stops Accepting Applications After Just 3 Weeks

The opening of NYC’s $75M Small Business Opportunity Fund backed by a combined partnership of Goldman Sachs, Mastercard, Community Reinvestment Fund, and CDFIs was heralded as historic. Cheered as the largest public-private loan fund ever directed at small businesses, which stood to offer 5-6 year loans up to $250,000 at a rate of 4% interest to help them recover from the pandemic, the program kicked off on January 23. Just three weeks later, however, the acceptance of new applications has been halted.

“Due to the high level of interest, the NYC Small Business Opportunity Fund has temporarily paused intake of new applications while our lending partners assess completed applications,” the official website states. News reports claim the that fund was swarmed with 10,000 applications.

Indeed, that is already more than 6x the maximum number of loans that the fund was set up to support. The Fund envisioned a maximum of 1,500 total loans originated before the capital was exhausted. The approval criteria itself is lenient as the fund boasts that there is no minimum credit score requirement. Documentation supporting an ability to repay the loan is required, however.

Businesses that didn’t apply early are told that they can fill out an inquiry form to be notified if the fund reopens.