GIACT To Help Streamline Financial Aid For SMBs In COVID-19 Payout

GIACT, which helps to verify and authenticate customers for businesses, is getting into the fray of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) for small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) given by the U.S. government in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

GIACT’s program, according to an emailed press release, will aid with quickening the process of getting the loans where they need to go. The program is an “interoperable, single API” solution and will help financial institutions (FIs) and lenders easily verify accounts and identities to start getting the loans out.

That, according to the release, will encompass speeding up the payment process, cleaning up any possible potholes where fraud or non-compliance might occur, and making sure that “legitimate businesses obtain the loans they need.”

GIACT’s EPIC Platform will streamline the identification process, speed up compliance processing with automated real-time screening, make a single database for beneficiaries of the loans that complies with all requisite rules, allow for real-time status updates with account information from beneficiaries, and authenticate signatures with verification from the corresponding bank accounts.

The government’s PPP provides $349 billion in Small Business Administration (SBA) loans and is part of a $2 trillion stimulus plan, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Under the plan, financial aid will also be given to individuals affected by the crisis as well as corporations.

Since the virus hit the U.S. in early March, it has turned the economy upside-down, leaving millions unemployed as businesses have been forced to close to avoid spreading the contagion.

But the government’s actions could end up easing things for business owners and those who were laid off — an extra $600 on top of normal unemployment benefits, also part of the CARES Act’s sweeping actions, could end up making the difference for everyone affected by the crisis.