Wells Fargo & Co will donate over US$400 million toward helping small businesses recover from the coronavirus pandemic, giving away all proceeds from its participation in the Payroll Protection Program.
At least US$28 million is earmarked for non-profit community lenders catering to Black entrepreneurs, the bank said."The hardest hit business in this are minority owned," president of consumer banking Mary Mack said in an interview. More than half of all small business owners do not expect to grow revenue over the next 12 months, a Wells Fargo survey found. The pandemic has shuttered Black owned-businesses at twice the rate of small businesses overall.