Replenished small business program could be exhausted by next week

The second round of a popular small business loan program is on track to run out of funds by next week.

The Payment Protection Program, which offers businesses forgivable loans if they devote most of the cash to keeping workers on payroll, approved over $52 billion in funds by 1 p.m. on Tuesday, just over a day after it reopened with newly appropriated funds from Congress, according to the Small Business Administration.

At that rate, the $310 billion lifeline would be exhausted within seven business days.

The first round of the program burned through its $349 billion limit in under two weeks, leaving small businesses scrambling.

But after criticism that larger, more connected businesses were getting the lion’s share of the loans, new restrictions on the second round of funding may be paying off.

SBA reported that the average loan size in the second round was down to $111,000, compared with $207,000 in the first round.