Hawaii banks have secured $1.6 billion dollars to save more than 100,000 jobs so far, through the Small Business Administration Paycheck Protection Program.

That’s thanks to local banks getting more than 7,500 businesses’ applications approved so far, within just 8 days since the national program launched. About 20,000 local businesses have applied, and approvals are ongoing.

The program aims to keep people on payroll and off unemployment for at least 8 weeks after funding.

See KHON2’s prior coverage of local banks’ efforts launching the SBA PPP lending.