Fed Announces Changes To Main Street Lending Program

The Federal Reserve announced on April 30 that it will expand the size and scope of its Main Street Lending Program (MSLP), which, when it opens, will provide loans to businesses struggling to keep their door opens in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. (Updated term sheets for each of the Fed’s three MSLP loan facilities are within the announcement.)

While it is still not clear yet when the program will be ready to take applications, the Federal Reserve said the MSLP will provide loans to companies with up to 15,000 employees or up to $5 billion in annual revenue, an increase from the 10,000 employees and $2.5 billion in revenue that originally had been proposed in the Fed’s initial announcement about the program.

Along with this change, the Federal Reserve announced key reforms that the Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI) called for, including clarifying that pass-through businesses’ distributions do not exclude companies from the program and a resolution of the credit calculation issue MSCI had raised in its April 16 comments about the MSLP.

To help broaden their understanding of the MSLP, MSCI recommends that its members check out the following resources:

• The National Association of Manufacturers overview of the MSLP, which is available here.
• The Federal Reserve’s comprehensive FAQ document.
• An magazine webinar, which outlines when a company should apply for the MSLP and is available here.
• Our own webinar with experts from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is available here.