Existing research establishes that minority borrowers, particularly Black small business owners, faced significant challenges in accessing funds from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), especially in its early stages. We find that institutional and racial disparities persist during the PPP loan forgiveness stage. Controlling for various loan- and borrower-level characteristics, we demonstrate that relationship lenders—community banks, credit unions, and farm credit institutions—are associated with higher rates of PPP loan forgiveness. In contrast, automated lenders—fintechs and fintech banks—exhibit the lowest forgiveness rates. Black borrowers experience the poorest outcomes, except for loans issued by non-depository fintech and lenders categorized as “other,” where they outperform White borrowers. Loan forgiveness rates improve, and racial disparities diminish, with increased lender concentration in specific economic sectors. Thus, specialized relationship lenders may have the highest odds of achieving the best and most equitable lending outcomes.

现有研究表明，少数族裔借款人，特别是黑人小企业主，在从薪资保护计划（PPP）获取资金方面面临着重大挑战，尤其是在其早期阶段。我们发现，在 PPP 贷款减免阶段，制度和种族差异仍然存在。控制各种贷款和借款人层面的特征，我们证明关系贷款人（社区银行、信用合作社和农业信贷机构）与较高的 PPP 贷款宽恕率相关。相比之下，自动化贷款机构（金融科技公司和金融科技银行）的宽恕率最低。黑人借款人的结果最差，除了非存款性金融科技和被归类为“其他”的贷方发放的贷款，他们在这些方面的表现优于白人借款人。随着贷款机构对特定经济部门的集中度增加，贷款宽恕率提高，种族差异缩小。因此，专业关系贷款人实现最佳和最公平贷款结果的可能性最高。