A good amount of smaller banking institutions assisted result in the federal Paycheck Protection Program far better than in many other states.

Within the times following the federal Paycheck Protection Program had been rolled down five months ago, huge, nationwide banking institutions around the world had been accused of fumbling this program by prioritizing loans to big company and making desperate little companies high and dry.

However in Maine, community banking institutions went into overdrive to process loans built to assist struggling principal Street organizations spend workers and keep carefully the lights on. Within months, huge amounts of bucks had been approved for tens and thousands of loans, assisting to support an economy in free-fall.

Becky Winslow, left, manager of community relations, and Kim Donnelly, manager of business banking, at Gorham Savings Bank in Portland. Numerous credit Maine’s strong community banking sector to make the federal Paycheck Protection Program more beneficial than in many other states. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

“I think everybody else discovered that the target would be to get as much of the loans authorized as well as in the machine as soon as possible,” said Kim Donnelly, manager of business banking at Gorham Savings Bank.

The bank shifted its staff and resources almost entirely to the emergency program before the loan program started in early April.

workers had been trained, placed on phones to respond to concerns and worked overtime to process loans, Donnelly stated. Those preparations most likely might have been challenging for a bigger business.

“If we weren’t an inferior bank, i do believe it could have already been more challenging to bring much more individuals and cross-train and literally within a couple of times be ready to go,” Donnelly said.