Mark Cuban Says the $100B Left in the PPP Funding Should go to Black-Owned Businesses

Dallas Mavericks owner and businessman, Mark Cuban offered to channel the $100 billion left in helping Black-owned and women-led businesses that were not included in the federal Payment Protection Program (PPP).

He tweeted this on Wednesday, May 20, 2020, on his tweeter account:

“If you are a minority or woman-owned or any company that believes you are eligible for a PPP loan but have not been approved, please post an overview of your status here and I will do my best to connect you to a bank. There’s still more than $100B left. Let’s get that money.”

According to the information Cuban revealed, there was $100 billion worth of funding left, and banks were willing to keep giving out loans to earn the 5 percent from the PPP loan disbursements.

“If you know a business that is in that situation, please help them connect here. There are plenty of banks that want to earn their 5%. Let’s connect them! @JillCastilla @VistaBank,” another tweet carried.

Cuban has always been an advocate for the minority in the society, especially when it has to do with federal programs like the PPP funding. Earlier that week, Cuban took to his twitter his displeasure and dissatisfaction of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), saying that “it’s time to face the fact that PPP didn’t work.”

Criticisms of the PPP didn’t only come from Cuban, as many others criticized the PPP funding which gave out $525 billion in two funding rounds.

When asked what motivated this idea, Cuban directed it to VC investor Arlan Hamilton, founder, and managing partner of Backstage Capital. In a book Hamilton co-authored with Gusto COO Lexi Reese titles, Fast Company, they revealed the new levels of economic imbalance in America that would affect both employees and small businesses. The book also revealed ways to close the funding gap to support small business owners. Cuban said Hamilton was “inspiration” behind his PPP tweet and that “she truly deserved the credit on this.”  

In a survey done by Global Strategy Group, it was revealed that only 12% of black and Latino business owners who applied for the PPP loan program actually received the amount they requested fro, compared to the 38% of all U.S. small businesses that acknowledged that they received the exact amount they applied for.

Prior to PPP, in early April, the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) predicted that about 95% of black-owned businesses had “close to no chance of receiving PPP loan through a mainstream bank or credit union,” due to the nature of the relationship between most minority-owned small businesses and banks.

According to the New York Times, the PPP would be the first time many black and Latino owned business owners ever sought a bank loan as “many banks considered applications from existing customers; some like Bank of American even turned away people who had opened credit cards through other lenders.”