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She said the oversights — some of which required clarification from Export Development Canada, the Crown corporation handling the CEBA loans — accounted for only 0.4 per cent of those believed to be qualified for loans of up to $40,000 under the federal government’s $25 billion Canadian Emergency Business Account.

RBC had approved 61,764 applications as of 3 p.m. Friday, for a total of more than $2.47 billion in loans, she said.

When the government program was announced last month as part of a relief package for businesses hit hard by mandatory shutdowns to try to contain the fast-spreading COVID-19 pandemic, the team at RBC tasked with getting the cash to clients decided isolating those eligible to apply and doing it fully online via a “self-serve” channel was the most efficient way, Paris said.

She added that this was intended to save businesses that didn’t qualify from going through a process only to be rejected, and to reduce the need for bank personnel to work “packed in” at call centres during the pandemic. The latter is now being reconsidered.

“We went in thinking this would be better,” Paris said, adding that the loans are not traditional bank business but rather a fulfillment of a government initiative with the bank acting as an agent of Export Development Canada (EDC).

“It really is our intent to have as many Canadians who need this money (and qualify for it get it into their accounts),” she said.

“There’s no vested interest for the bank to prevent clients getting access to (this) money… nor do we have interest in making it hard for people.”