Today In Payments: $120B In PPP Loans Still Available; Amazon Reportedly Eyeing Beleaguered AMC Theatres

In today’s news, the small business Paycheck Protection Program still has $120 billion available, and Amazon is reportedly looking to buy AMC Theatres. Plus, the pandemic has put millennial homebuying on hold.

$120B Still Available As Appetite For PPP Loans Slows

The small business Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) still has $120 billion available as the appetite for the forgivable loans slows down, according to recent Small Business Administration (SBA) data. The second round of the program was launched with an additional $310 billion on April 27.

Amazon Reportedly Eyeing Beleaguered AMC Theatres

Said to be on the brink of bankruptcy, the country’s biggest movie theater chain, AMC Entertainment, could have an alternate ending if rumors pan out that Amazon is looking to buy the company. The parent company of the U.K.’s Odeon Cinemas Group, AMC saw a 50 percent surge in its share price on the unconfirmed news that the eCommerce giant is in talks to buy the movie chain.

Crisis Puts Homeownership On Hold For Millennials

At 3.26 percent, the 30-year fixed rate mortgage set a new record last week, but there are factors weighing against millennials taking on mortgages.

Rubber Meets Road in Transportation’s (Digital) ‘New Normal’

Traveling by car may be ripe for a comeback, but the ways and means of getting consumers into their cars are shifting toward virtual, contactless commerce. As we reopen the U.S. economy — whatever that looks like — and as people start to move around again, and to go further than, say, a mile radius from their homesteads … might there be a renaissance for road travel?

Disrupting Traditional Payroll For A New Economic And Global Normal

The payroll system has long been in need of an update, since it’s technologically possible not to make workers wait two weeks for money they’ve already earned. Ceridian CEO David Ossip told Karen Webster in a recent conversation that the global health crisis has pushed the issue into the forefront and drove Ceridian to develop its Dayforce Wallet to make it easier for customers to be paid instantly, instead of in arrears. It’s obviously a better deal for workers, but it is also a much smarter economic move for the firms that employ them. Here’s why.

How Brick-and-Mortar Banks Can Seize The Digital Moment

The mass migration of consumers to the digital realm presents their banks with a stark option: They can be part of the problem or they can be the solution. In the Building A Better App Playbook, PYMNTS surveys 3,187 consumers to reveal how banks can keep the 30 percent of digitally-oriented who might otherwise leave for a more digitally savvy financial institution loyal.

Will Restaurant Recovery Require Capturing The Ghost Kitchen Opportunity?

Some restaurants have embraced the ghost kitchen model in response to the needs of the industry in a post-pandemic recovery environment and beyond — where consumers could really go for a restaurant meal.