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Known as the Paycheck Protection Program, the plan was intended
to help small firms weather the worst global economic crisis in
decades but has been hobbled by missing paperwork, technology
failure and a misdirection of funds to big corporations.
Attorney General Letitia James said she is seeking information
on the practices, marketing and procedures that banks undertook
when they issued those loans. Also of interest is whether some
companies had used their lobbying power to influence the way
banks had dispensed the loans, she said.
"We are concerned that women and minority groups did not have
equal access to loans," James said in an interview, adding that
she worried a disproportionate amount of money had flowed to big
companies.
A spokesman for James declined to name the 11 banks that had
received a letter from the office, sent on April 29, but said
they are "large" U.S. banks.
The United States has been hardest hit by the coronavirus, which
causes a respiratory disease, having seen 67,821 deaths in the
country, higher than any other nation in the world.
(Reporting by Koh Gui Qing; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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