April 30, 2020, 10:00 am EDT | Federal Reserve Board Expands Scope and Eligibility for Main Street Lending Program

The Federal Reserve Board announces it is expanding the scope and eligibility of the Main Street Lending Program. In response to public input, the Board decided to expand the loan options available to businesses and increase the maximum size of businesses that are eligible for support under the program. The changes include:

Creating a third loan option, with increased risk sharing by lenders for borrowers with greater leverage

Lowering the minimum loan size for certain loans to $500,000

Expanding the pool of businesses eligible to borrow

Under the new loan option, lenders would retain a 15 percent share on some loans: These are loans that, when added to existing debt, do not exceed six times a borrower's income (adjusted for interest payments, taxes, depreciation, and other appropriate adjustments).Also, businesses with up to 15,000 employees or up to $5 billion in annual revenue are now eligible. The initial program terms were for companies with up to 10,000 employees and $2.5 billion in revenue. The minimum loan size for two of the options was also lowered from $1 million to $500,000.