Pool Reports of April 7, 2020

WH In-Town pool report #1

Good morning.

It's a beautiful 63 degrees and sunny at the White House.

Here's what's on the schedule today:

At 3 PM, President Trump will participate in “America CARES: Small Business Relief Update” in the Roosevelt Room. This is restricted in-house pool only.

At 5 PM, a White House coronavirus briefing is scheduled.

I'll pass along any updates throughout the day.

WH In-Town Pool Report #2 -- lunch lid

We have a lunch lid until 2 p.m.

WH In-Town Pool Report #3

At 2:50 PM, pool gathered for small business update in the Roosevelt Room.

WH In-Town Pool Report #4

Pool is now in the Roosevelt Room.

POTUS is not here yet. Name tags here for Ivanka Trump, Larry Kudlow, Steven Mnuchin and Administrator Carranza.

A TV is set up with feeds from Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, Citi Corp, MasterCard, Visa, Southern Bancorp, Grand Rapids State Bank, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and Community Spirit Bank.

WH In-Town Pool Report #5

POTUS now speaking to banks.

“I think we are going to go like a rocket ship once we get back to the business.”

More coming...

WH In-Town Pool Report #6

Trump said his administration will take the “boldest action in history” to help small business.

Since Friday when it launched, PPP loan program Processed over $70 billion in guaranteed loans, he said.

He said it more than quarter million businesses have applied for the loans.

“Far greater than we could have ever expected.”

“We'll be running out of money pretty quickly which is a good thing in this case,” Trump said.

Mnuchin said they've requested $250 billion in additional funds for the Paycheck Protection Program from Congress and expect a Senate vote Thursday and House vote Friday.

More coming...

WH In-Town Pool Report #7– you can call in

Received this from WH press staff:

Today, President Donald J. Trump will lead a video conference with top Administration officials and banking leaders to discuss the whole-of-America effort to deliver financial and technical assistance to our Nation's small businesses. The Administration-negotiated CARES Act provides $350 billion for small businesses through the Paycheck Protection Program.

Due to the limited nature of the presidential press pool, we encourage outlets wishing to listen-in on the event to use the below dial-in for reporting.

This will be in listen-only mode. Limit one dial-in per outlet.

Participant Dial-In: [Redacted by APP.]

Participant Code: [Redacted by APP.]

The following individuals are expected to attend:

The White House

President Donald J. Trump
Ivanka Trump, Advisor to the President
Larry Kudlow, Assistant to the President and Director of the National Economic Council

Trump Administration

Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Department of the Treasury
Administrator Jovita Carranza, Small Business Administration

External Participants

David Solomon, Chief Executive Officer, Goldman Sachs
Brian Moynihan, Chief Executive Officer, Bank of America
Gordon Smith, Co-President and Chief Operating Officer, JP Morgan Chase
Charles Scharf, Chief Executive Officer, Wells Fargo
Michael Corbat, Chief Executive, Citigroup
Al Kelly, Chief Executive Officer, Visa
Michael Miebach, Chief Executive Officer, Mastercard
Noah Wilcox, President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, Grand Rapids State Bank
Brad Bolton, President, Chief Executive Officer and Senior Lender, Community Spirit Bank
Darrin Williams, Chief Executive Officer, Southern Bancorp
Chip Mahan, Chairman and CEO, Live Oak Bank

WH In-Town Pool report #8— event ongoing, call in now

The small business event is ongoing.

Call in now using dial in information sent in last pool report if you want to listen.

Currently each participating bank is discussing the demand for the PPP program and announcing new policies they are enacting.

More updates coming...

WH In-Town Pool Report # 9 -- small business event over

The small business event has ended.

The CEOs of Grand Rapids State Bank and Community Spirit Bank said that 1/3 of community banks are not able to administer Paycheck Protection Programs loans now and they asked the administration to ensure that all community banks can participate in the program.

Secretary Mnuchin said they're all getting authenticated and the Treasury will get everybody approved.

More updates coming….

WH In-Town Pool Report #10 -- feed of bank promises from White House

Your pooler just received this from the White House press office. These banks participated in the small business relief event.

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION CALLS ON THE PRIVATE SECTOR
AND DELIVERS FOR SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS
After calling on the private sector to step-up for small businesses, the Trump administration delivers major commitments from these public-private partnerships.

Goldman Sachs Deliverable:
• Commits to $500 million in capital and critical infrastructure to Treasury-certified Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), to help small business.
• Goldman Sachs will provide grant dollars to CDFI partners. This will enable CDFIs to hire necessary staff, onboard technologies and quickly set up other operational needs to successfully provide loans to small businesses.

Bank of America Deliverable:
• Commits $250 million in capital and $10 million in philanthropic grants to Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs). These investments will expand access to capital to more small businesses and not-for-profits Announces additional support for consumer and small business clients experiencing hardship from the impact of COVID-19.
• Commits $100 million in support of communities around the world impacted by coronavirus pandemic.

JP Morgan Chase Deliverable:
• Announcing $150 million program to help community partners receive capital for underserved small businesses and nonprofits, focusing on underserved entrepreneurs including women and minority owners and the hardest hit communities.
• JP Morgan Chase continues to lend money in the communities where they do business, lending $39.4 billion since the crisis began in February.
• JP Morgan Chase announced $50 million in philanthropic support to address the immediate public health and long-term economic challenges for small business and communities from COVID-19.
• In addition to helping hundreds of thousands of small business customers receive access to the Paycheck Protection Program loans, JP Morgan Chase has also provided other relief such as payment deferrals and fee waivers on credit lines, loans, business credit cards and checking accounts.

Wells Fargo Deliverable:
• Will not charge any late fees on accounts requesting assistance or report past-due status for up to 90 days, and has also temporarily stopped all foreclosure-related activity and eviction for small business customers with loans in our lending portfolio.
• The Wells Fargo Foundation has committed $175 million to support non-profits at the federal, state, and local levels helping people impacted by COVID-19. Including $10 million to support small businesses.
• $2 million of which will focus on the deployment of flexible capital in collaboration with Opportunity Fund and will also provide immediate cash boosts and financial coaching support of entrepreneurs and their low-wage workers in coordination with SaverLife.

Citibank Deliverable:
• Citi commits to issue waivers on monthly service fees and remote deposit capture, and waive penalties for early CD withdrawals.
• Citi commits to suspended foreclosures and evictions for 60 days through its subservicer Cenlar and is providing forbearance programs for student loans through its subservicer Firstmark.
• Citi has also made Small Business bankers available after hours and on weekends for support and have engaged hundreds of small business clients to help assess their needs and deliver critical financial solutions.
• Participating in the Small Business Administration's newly launched Paycheck Protection Program.

Visa Deliverable:
• The Visa Foundation is committed to two programs totaling $210 million to support small and micro businesses, aligning with the Foundation's long-term focus on women's economic advancement and inclusive economic development, and to address an urgent need from local communities following the spread of COVID-19.
• The second program is a five-year, strategic $200 million commitment to support small and micro businesses around the world, with a focus on fostering women's economic advancement.
• Through the $200 million small and micro business program, the Visa Foundation will provide $60 million in grants to NGOs dedicated to supporting small and micro business owners, many of whom are women, in every region where Visa operates. The Visa Foundation will also allocate $140 million with investment partners that generate positive social and financial returns for small and micro businesses.

Mastercard Deliverable:
• Committing $250 million over the next 5 years to small businesses in the United States and other markets where Mastercard operates, supporting the financial security and vitality of businesses and their workers.
• Offer free cyber vulnerability assessments and identity theft protection over the next three months to any of the eligible 28 million small businesses, as well as their 57 million employees, who participate in the Small Business Administration's (SBA's) $349 billion Paycheck Protection Program.
• Commit to offering free Local Market Intelligence™ solutions, providing insights into local consumer spend patterns, leveraging MasterCard's anonymized data, to the millions of small businesses that accept MasterCard.

Grand Rapids State Bank Deliverable:
• Modifying loan terms to create a period of interest only payments.
• Modifying loans by deferring payments for up to six months, creating a period of time where there is total temporary relief from payments.
• Created a #CommunityStrong campaign to raise awareness of various local businesses each week and then give away gift cards to area residents to that week's featured local businesses. Provide lunch to in-office staff at all locations from local restaurants on Fridays each week.

Community Spirit Bank Deliverable:
• Committed to 90-day payment deferral programs for anyone affected by the virus, allowing for deferment of both principal and interest for these customers on any affected loan.
• CEO Brad Bolton issued a video to the customer base to assure them they would still have access to all banking services, just on a more limited basis and gave out his personal cell phone number, email and direct dial.
• CSB has continued to assure its local deposit base of the strength of not only its community bank, but community banking in general, all backed by the FDIC, which has never lost a single depositor's money since it was founded in 1933.

WH In-Town Pool Report #10 -- more from small business event

This email has fuller comments from administration officials from the Roosevelt Room small business relief event. I'll send some limited comments from the banks next, but you also got the information sent from the White House.

President Trump and Sec. Mnuchin answered four media questions at the close of the event.

Mnuchin and Trump said their request for more funding for the Paycheck Protection Program is distinct from Phase 4 coronavirus bill negotiations.

Asked about more direct cash assistance for Americans, Mnuchin said “We'll come back on that issue. Right now we're working on execution, making sure small business have all the money they need.”

Asked about Peter Navarro's memo from January 29 regarding coronavirus, Trump said “we'll talk about it at the press conference,” referring to the 5 PM briefing.

Asked about what the administration is doing to allow more community banks to make PPP loans after two community banks on the videoconference said that 1/3 of all community banks could not access the program, Mnuchin said “There's just a lot of new users coming onto the system. They're all getting authenticated. We'll get them all approved.”

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President Trump, Ivanka Trump, Larry Kudlow, Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Administrator Carranza all gave statements in the Roosevelt room at the top of the small business event. They sat at a long table facing a television screen displaying video feeds of the bank CEOs participating in the event in a similar style to a Zoom call.

Ivanka Trump, Mnuchin and President Trump made short closing remarks after each bank CEO spoke.

There were two technical glitches. At one point during Trump's opening remarks, the video feed played back a stuttered version of Trump speaking. Also, the last bank invited to speak, Live Oak Bank, was unresponsive and appeared not to be on the call when President Trump called on the CEO.

I already sent you some highlights from President Trump's opening remarks.

Secretary Mnuchin said over 3,000 banks have been participating in the Paycheck Protection Program since Friday.
He called the response to the program “incredible.”
Over the weekend, he told President Trump it was “so successful we were concerned we would run out of money.”
He said he spoke Sens. McConnell and Schumer and Reps. Pelosi and McCarthy today regarding additional funding for the PPP program.
“We look forward to the Senate passing that on Thursday and the House passing that on Friday.”

Administrator Carranza said of all the small businesses in the nation, “I think they're all approaching our phone lines as we speak.”
She said about 300 new lenders are working with the SBA on the PPP.

National Economic Council Director Kudlow expressed confidence that the economy will return strongly.
“I will say that as our mitigation policies have taken hold successfully in dealing with the virus and as we move to what we believe can be a reopening of the economy in the weeks ahead, we started with a strong foundation as the president mentioned and there will be some transitions, but I see no reason why the second of the year cannot resume strong, solid growth.”

Check all quotes against the transcript.

WH In-Town Pool Report #11 -- final blast from small business event

Select comments from bank CEOs:

The CEO of Goldman Sachs requested a policy modification from the administration:
"We believe the Treasury should work with the SBA to provide a designated tranche of the money that's being earmarked for CDFIs and other mission driven lenders. We believe this could occur through new guidance. Otherwise, businesses served by CDFIs will continue to face an uphill battle receiving the capital they so desperately and urgently need."

The CEO of Bank of America:
"We're up to about 250,000 applications at our company. We're beginning to process those through to the SBA. It will take an automated feed that the SBA is working hard to get set up because when it starts coming it's coming with a lot of volume."
"We continue to get continue to get several thousand applications every hour and we are not yet to the second part of the program, which you spoke about earlier, the sole proprietors."

And as I wrote earlier, two community banks also requested that the SBA open up PPP lending to more community banks.

Check quotes against transcript as always.

In-Town Pool Report #12 -- coronavirus briefing

Your pooler is in place for the White House coronavirus briefing, which has not started yet.

You can watch live here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/live/

Thus, I will not send highlights and quotes, but I will send any color not available on screen.

Journalists in the briefing room had their temperatures checked prior to the briefing and were given round, orange stickers.

WH In-Town Pool Report #13 -- the briefing will begin at 5:30 PM

This was just announced over the loud speaker in the briefing room.

WH In-Town Pool Report #14 -- two minute warning

Two minute warning until the briefing starts

WH In-Town Pool Report #15 -- briefing attendees

President Trump, VP Pence, Dr. Birx and CMS Administrator Verma are on the stage in the briefing room.

Dr. Fauci is sitting to the left of the stage (from the view point of your pooler). I'm not sure if he is off camera or if you can see him.

WH In-Town Pool Report #16 -- POTUS exits

President Trump left the briefing room at 6:40 PM. VP Pence has taken the podium. Verma and Birx are on stage with him.

Dr. Fauci remains seated off to the left of the stage.

Chanel Rion of OANN is present in the back of the briefing room and asked President Trump a question.

WH In-Town Pool Report #17 -- briefing over, lid

We got a travel/photo lid at 7:28 PM. The briefing has ended.