This is exchanges of Goldman Sachs where we discuss developments currently shaping markets, industries in the global economy.

I'm Jake Seawert, Global Head of Corporate Communications here at the firm.

Today we're going to get an update on the state of small business in the United States from Margaret Anado who leads our firm's Urban Investment

Group.

Margaret was on the program last month and we're delighted to have her back.

We'll talk a lot about the PPP program, including how the strategies played out to get money in the hands of small businesses

and what Margaret and her team have been doing to create partnerships to deploy that capital.

Some trends that have emerged when it comes to lending support and the road ahead.

Margaret, welcome back to the program.

Jake, thanks for having me.

So it's now been seven weeks or so since the CARES Act was signed into law and the

Paycheck Protection Program or PPP program was created. As listeners may know

the PPP Initiative was one of the key federal relief efforts, and it provides emergency

loans to small businesses.

But that relief did not come right away.

Tell us about how you and your team approached small business lending when the crisis first emerged before there was federal legislation?

Sure. So back in March when this became a US crisis, we were in touch with many of the business owners that we've known for years

through our 10,000 small businesses initiative and we knew that they needed capital immediately

and we're concerned about their ability to survive.

So knowing that federal relief might take some time,

we started pushing forward with local public private partnerships to get capital to businesses.

You know, from the start, we knew this crisis would require strong partnerships.

...