Since the COVID-19 outbreak began, things have been changing rapidly. It impacted many of our lifestyles but has also been changing the way we do business from a day-to-day basis too. For banks specifically, there have been unprecedented challenges including the coin shortage and restricting branch lobbies. There have also been new loan programs such as the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans. With the new discoveries that are made with the coronavirus and the loan programs, there has been so much information to process and convey to the employees of the banks.
As a result of all the recent changes, Fannie Mae surveyed more than 250 senior mortgage executives about the recent challenges and the results show that the health and safety of their staff, lack of clarity on Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans and the supply chain disruptions have been the biggest obstacles that has come out of this pandemic.
Aside from the traditional banking compliance regulations and issues, banks had to be mindful of health and safety guidance from the CDC and both the federal and state governments. Additionally, there were many areas where there were more localized restrictions as well to ensure that both the customers and the employees would be safe. Since it isn’t something banks have normally been familiar with, this was a big challenge for our members. To assist in business continuity planning during the pandemic, Compliance Alliance has been developing tools to handle lobby re-openings including a checklist here: https://compliancealliance.com/find-a-tool/tool/covid-19-reopening-checklist And a full pandemic planning resource page here: https://compliancealliance.com/about-us/pandemic-planning-for-banks
The pandemic created many changes, but it also had a slight domino effect in the world of banking. With the CARES Act introducing PPP loans, there have been guidance issued constantly after its implementation to clarify how the loans would work. And once the banks started understanding how to help borrowers apply for the PPP loans, there was a whole new set of problems in figuring out how to apply for loan forgiveness. It didn’t end there either. With the economic impact from the pandemic, interest rates have been near historic lows and have led to many more people pursuing a refinance or a new home equity loan. Together with the PPP loans, banks have been incredibly busy handling all the new inquiries which have been contributing to the supply chain disruptions that these mortgage executives are talking about. To assist our members in tackling these challenges, we have developed a page dedicated to PPP loans that has been constantly updated when new guidance has been published. Available here:https://compliancealliance.com/about-us/paycheck-protection-program-resource
Even though many of our day-to-day environments have changed, we are aware that our members are continuously seeking to help their customers the best that they can. We hope that the tools that we develop will continue to help you make that task a little bit easier.