In today’s top news, millions of dollars from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) have not gone to benefit small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), and the CEO of Grab said the coronavirus is creating major challenges for the delivery company. Plus, the IRS has shelved processing tax refunds to make room for sending stimulus payments.
Public Businesses Reap PPP Relief Of $300M
Small businesses struggling to stay afloat were supposed to collect the most benefits from the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Instead, millions went to companies traded publicly on the stock market, businesses with thousands of employees and even to some firms that were about to fold before the coronavirus crisis hit.
Grab CEO To Investors: We’re Facing ‘Tough Decisions’
The CEO of Grab Holdings Inc. told investors the coronavirus is creating major challenges for the Singapore ride-hailing and food delivery company. Demand for the Singapore-based company has disappeared with the shuttering of all but essential services. Grab has said it is trying to offset the loss of ride-hailing business with its food delivery service.
IRS Puts Tax Refunds In Storage As It Works On Stimulus Checks
Combine antiquated equipment, paper documents and closed processing centers: these have combined to create crippling challenges for the IRS this tax season, and the agency has had to fill storage units with unopened refund requests in order to focus on sending stimulus payments under the CARES Act.
Restaurants Seek More Aid As April Losses Could Top $50B
The U.S. restaurant industry has asked Congress for more financial aid, as the industry faces losing an estimated $240 billion by year’s end. The Washington, D.C. trade association said COVID-19 has forced more than 8 million restaurant employees to be laid off or furloughed since the beginning of the outbreak last month.
Allstate On Using AI To Fight Insurance Claims Fraud
Fraudulent insurance claims in the U.S. account for more than $80 billion in payments a year, with legitimate customers paying higher premiums to make up for the losses. While digital claim filing has made processes more frictionless than ever, it’s also opening new doors to fraud. In this month’s Digital Fraud Tracker, Greg Firestone, vice president of data science for insurance provider Allstate explains how the company is using artificial intelligence (AI) to keep claimants honest and the review process free from adjusters’ biases.
Getting The Plumbing Ready For Banking as a Service
FinTechs want to build financial services and products to ride the shift to digital banking. So do supermarkets, and so do banks. To get there and to get consumers to bank with whom they trust, these firms need a platform upon which they can build, test and deploy new offerings. Nigel Verdon, CEO of Railsbank, tells Karen Webster how his firm, fresh off an investment round from Visa, aims to be the “utility” that enables banking as a service.
Amid Scramble For Fed Funds, Fundamental Question: Who’s An SMB?
The stimulus bill passed by Congress in March was crafted to provide loans to companies with less than 500 employees — or multiple locations, with fewer than 500 employees per location; firms decidedly larger than mom and pop shops. This begs the question: who’s an SMB?
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