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V O L . X X V I I N O. V I I A P R I L 5 , 2 0 2 1 16 B A N K I N G / F I N A N C E / I N S U R A N C E Grandy Oats is among more than 28,000 Maine businesses that received $2.3 billion in PPP loans in 2020, help- ing support more than 250,000 jobs. is year through March 21, more than 12,000 loans were approved in Maine worth nearly $800 million (see graphic for exact numbers). Anything but routine e program, administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration, has been anything but routine for banks. Behind the scenes, commercial and business bankers — some new to SBA lending — and colleagues from other departments answered queries and processed paperwork around the clock. Along the way and work- ing largely from home as branches were closed, they navigated new rules that were constantly in flux, handling urgently needed loans in volumes that were exponentially higher than normal times. As Trickey thinks back with a refer- ence to post-traumatic stress disorder ("I'm only half-kidding"), she considers it the most trying time in her 40-year banking career but also the most rewarding, saying, "I feel like what I did truly made a difference for many people and many businesses." So does Marjorie McAvoy, who processed first-round PPP loans at Androscoggin Bank and now manages Biddeford Savings' Scarborough branch. Frustrated when she didn't know the answers to all her clients' ques- tions or when they didn't qualify for PPP relief and she offered alterna- tives, she says, "I made sure everyone got what they needed." Rescue relief delivered by banks e Paycheck Protection Program is an SBA-backed forgivable loan program created at the start of the pandemic by a $2.2 trillion federal stimulus bill known as the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security or CARES Act. Its goal: To help businesses keep staff on the P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY F O C U S Grandy Oats owner and chief granola officer Aaron Anker with Terry Trickey of Bangor Savings Bank. Banks delivered the results of the PPP program to Main Street. — Chris Pinkham Maine Bankers Association S O U R C E : U.S. Small Business Administration Maine District Office; data as of March 21, 2021. PPP LENDING IN MAINE 2020 2021 2020 2021 28,309 12,732 $797M Avg. $62,617 per loan $2.27B Avg. $80,075 per loan Number of loans Total amount loaned A mad scramble for money marked the start of a $349 bil- lion federal COVID-relief loan program in April 2020 that ran dry within two weeks. Afraid it wouldn't even last that long, business owners deluged bankers with pleas for rapid issuance of the lifesaving loans. "e biggest concern we all had was that the money would run out that first weekend," says Aaron Anker, an owner and self-proclaimed chief granola officer at Grandy Oats, a Hiram-based maker of organic granola, trail mixes, roasted nuts and cereal that employs more than 30. "When the first round came out, I was on the phone with my banker until all hours." e banker was Bangor Savings Bank Vice President Terry Trickey, who had worked with Anker for the past 15 years. She helped Grandy Oats file the right paperwork at 2 a.m. on a Saturday, after a quick redo when the form changed for what was officially known as the Paycheck Protection Program. Approval came through the following Tuesday, allowing Anker and business partner Nat Peirce to pay furloughed staff, keep those still coming in safe and cover employees' health insurance. "Since then," Anker says, "we've been able to bring back our current staff to levels similar to what they were before the pandemic. We wouldn't have been able to do that without the PPP." LOAN rangers Behind the scenes of the Paycheck Protection Program in Maine B y R e n e e C o R d e s

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