Loan programs

Study details aid received through two major programs

Federal business relief to region topped $2 billion./

Capital Region businesses battered by coronavirus restrictions, which have forced many to close or severely limit their hours and capacity, have received roughly $2 billion in federal loans from the Small Business Administration to keep them afloat, a new study by the Center for Economic Growth found.

The CEG analysis of SBA data found that local lenders approved $1.6 billion in loans through the SBA’S Paycheck Protection Program to local companies, which, when included with $442 million in

loans through the SBA’S economic injury disaster loan program, totals more than $2 billion.

Keybank was the biggest

PPP lender in the Capital Region, with $387 million in loans, which the federal government will forgive if the

companies meet stringent employment levels and other requirements.

The second-biggest lender was M&T Bank, which lent out $128 million through the PPP.

Adirondack Trust of Saratoga Springs was the most active locally based bank in the PPP with $98 million in loans to businesses.

Nearly $700 million of the loans were given out in Albany County. Saratoga County had $320 million in PPP loans, the CEG study found.

The study found that a majority of the 15,418 loans given out under the PPP in the Capital Region were under $150,000. The top industries that received loans were construction, health care and social assistance firms. Retail stores and restaurants were lower down on the list.

Lori Van Buren / Times Union Ruth Mahoney, Keybank’s Capital Region market president, speaks at a 2018 event in Cohoes. Keybank made $387 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans in the Capital Region this year.

Times Union archive A ribbon-cutting ceremony is held at an M&T Bank branch in Albany in 2019. M&T Bank lent out $128 million in federal business relief funds.