Wintrust Financial Corporation to Make Loans to Approximately 8,900 Small Businesses Through the Paycheck Protection Program
April 17 2020 - 6:27PM
Wintrust Financial Corporation (“Wintrust” or “the Company”)
(Nasdaq: WTFC) announced today that it secured authorization from
the Small Business Administration (SBA) to fund nearly $3.3 billion
in loans to approximately 8,900 small businesses through April 16,
when the SBA announced that appropriations had been exhausted for
the $349 billion Payroll Protection Program (PPP).
When the SBA announced that the $349 billion
allocation had been fully allocated, Wintrust had secured
authorization from the SBA to fund loans for approximately 99
percent of the client applications it had received and processed
for approval. Wintrust has since notified and is working with those
clients who didn’t receive loan authorization, mainly due to
incomplete or ineligible applications, to help review other sources
of relief that may be available to them.
Historically, Wintrust ranks as one of the
largest SBA lenders in the communities it serves. For the PPP
program, Wintrust secured approval of more than $2.5 billion in
loans for approximately 7,500 small businesses in Illinois. It
secured approval of over $263 million in loans for more than 850
small businesses in Wisconsin. The remaining approximately $500
million in loan approvals were secured for more than 500 small
business borrowers with operations in other states around the
country. The median loan size is approximately $87,500, and more
than 4,500 loans, over half of the total number of PPP loans made
by Wintrust, are for less than $100,000, demonstrating the relief
provided by Wintrust community banks to very small businesses.
Edward J. Wehmer, Founder and Chief Executive
Officer, commented, “Our clients and communities needed our help
and we did our very best to earn the trust they placed in us. We
have begun funding the loan applications that we received during
the early days of the program, thus far funding nearly half of the
$3.3 billion in approved loans. We look forward to completing
the necessary documentation and funding the remaining loans as
quickly as possible over the next few days.”
Wehmer continued, “These are difficult times for
everyone. And while we could have never envisioned these specific
circumstances when Wintrust was founded in 1991, one of our
founding principles was to always answer the call of our
communities when the time came and that is what we continue to
strive to do. I hope that through our unprecedented efforts to
fully engage as a PPP lender, we have been able to provide some
peace of mind and comfort to participating small business owners
and their employees for the coming months, and allow those small
businesses that otherwise might have been forced to close the
opportunity to re-open and hopefully flourish.”
Tom Huffman, Senior Vice President, Wintrust SBA
Lending, stated, “In a little under two weeks, Wintrust
administered nearly 50 times the number of SBA loan applications
through the PPP program than we process in a typical year. Wintrust
saw the reports that the $349 billion was close to being exhausted
earlier this week. We made every effort, through around-the-clock
work for days, to secure authorizations for the inquiries that were
properly submitted. There are now reports that Congress may make a
second appropriation for the PPP program. If that happens, we will
be ready to serve our communities once again.”
At this point, the SBA is no longer accepting
applications for the PPP, and accordingly, Wintrust is not
accepting PPP applications at this time. Wintrust encourages those
who did not apply for the PPP, but may want to if additional
funding is appropriated, to watch wintrust.com and the SBA website
for further developments. Wintrust would also urge small
businesses in need to investigate other potential funding options,
via the SBA or other government agencies who may have a program for
which they qualify.
Wehmer concluded, “I again want to thank the
entire Wintrust team for their momentous efforts. It was amazing to
witness the challenges they overcame and accomplishments they
achieved to serve our clients and communities.”
For additional and current information on how
Wintrust and its affiliate charter banks are responding to the
coronavirus click here.
About WintrustWintrust is a
financial holding company with assets of over $36 billion whose
common stock is traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market. Built on
the "HAVE IT ALL" model, Wintrust offers sophisticated technology
and resources of a large bank while focusing on providing
service-based community banking to each and every customer.
Wintrust operates fifteen community bank subsidiaries, with over
180 banking locations located in the greater Chicago and southern
Wisconsin market areas. Additionally, Wintrust operates various
non-bank business units including business units which provide
commercial and life insurance premium financing in the United
States, a premium finance company operating in Canada, a company
providing short-term accounts receivable financing and value-added
out-sourced administrative services to the temporary staffing
services industry, a business unit engaging primarily in the
origination and purchase of residential mortgages for sale into the
secondary market throughout the United States, and companies
providing wealth management services and qualified intermediary
services for tax-deferred exchanges.
Forward-Looking InformationThis
press release contains forward-looking statements within the
meaning of the federal securities laws. Investors are cautioned
that such statements are predictions and actual events or results
may differ materially. Wintrust's expected financial results or
other plans are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. For
a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause
actual results to differ from those contained in the
forward-looking statements, see "Risk Factors" and the
forward-looking statement disclosure contained in Wintrust's most
recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and in any of the Company’s
subsequent SEC filings. Forward-looking statements speak only as of
the date made and Wintrust undertakes no duty to update the
information.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:Edward J. Wehmer,
Founder & Chief Executive OfficerDavid A. Dykstra, Vice
Chairman & Chief Operating Officer(847) 939-9000Web site
address: www.wintrust.com
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