Credit unions are concerned Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan forgiveness process is overly complicated, CUNA wrote to a House Small Business subcommittee Friday. The letter follows two previous letters on the importance of PPP forgiveness sent by CUNA to Congress this week.

“In order to allow America’s small business owners and Main Street financial institutions to remain focused on serving their communities rather than jumping through burdensome regulatory hurdles, we urge Congress to implement policy that provides automatic loan forgiveness for PPP loans,” the letter reads. “We strongly support H.R. 7777, the Paycheck Protection Program Small Business Forgiveness Act and its Senate companion, S. 4117. This legislation would provide forgiveness for PPP loans of $150,000 or less if the borrower submits an attestation form to the lender. It also ensures that the lender will be held harmless from any enforcement action if the borrower’s attestation contained falsehoods.”

CUNA added that quickly enacting the bill will help small businesses that need the loan forgiveness process to be as simple, cost-effective and efficient as possible.

Credit unions across the nation made more than 170,000 PPP loans to help small business owners pay employees and other necessary expenses during the pandemic. The average credit union-originated loan was around $49,000 with some loans as small as $1,000 or less.