Puerto Rico to get $109M in federal small business funding

Feb. 9 (UPI) -- Puerto Rico is receiving as much as $109 million in federal funding to help small business owners in the American territory, the U.S. Treasury Department announced Thursday.

Money is from the federal government's State Small Business Credit Initiative, originally announced under President Joe Biden's American Rescue Plan.

The Treasury Department has now approved SSBCI funding of over $6 billion to various states and territories, including Thursday's announcement about Puerto Rico.

All funding is meant to "support small business and entrepreneurship and expand access to capital," the Treasury Department said in a statement.

"Our public policy goal is to capitalize the Puerto Rico Economic Development Bank in order to expand our ability to promote the development of new businesses and the expansion of existing ones," Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said in a statement.

Puerto Rico will operate a collateral support program and a loan participation program using the SSBCI funding. A majority of the funding ($87.4 million) will go to the collateral support program and help provide collateralized guarantees to lenders. The remaining $21.8 million is earmarked for commercial loans targeting specific economic sectors.

"Empowering small businesses and entrepreneurs, especially in traditionally underserved communities, is critical to advancing our shared vision for a more equitable economy," U.S. Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo said in a statement Thursday.

The Treasury previously announced $300 million worth of SSBCI funding for Puerto Rico. That money is dedicated to technical assistance funding.

In December, the Treasury Department announced it was awarding $1 billion in funding to help grow small businesses across seven states.