IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fedbcq/93068.html

The Main Street Lending Program

Author

Abstract

The Main Street Lending Program was created to support credit to small and medium-sized businesses and nonprofit organizations that were harmed by the pandemic, particularly those that were unsupported by other pandemic-response programs. It was the most direct involvement in the business loan market by the Federal Reserve since the 1930s and 1940s. Main Street operated by buying 95 percent participations in standardized loans from lenders (mostly banks) and sharing the credit risk with them. It would end up supporting loans to more than 2,400 borrowers and co-borrowers across the United States with an average loan size of $9.5 million and total volume of $17.5 billion. This article describes its goals, its design, the challenges and constraints that shaped its reach, and the characteristics of its borrowers and lenders. We conclude with some lessons learned for future policymakers and facility designers.

Suggested Citation

  • David M. Arseneau & José Fillat & Molly Mahar & Donald P. Morgan & Skander J. Van den Heuvel, 2021. "The Main Street Lending Program," Current Policy Perspectives 93068, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedbcq:93068
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.bostonfed.org/publications/current-policy-perspectives/2021/the-main-street-lending-program.aspx
    File Function: Summary
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.bostonfed.org/-/media/Documents/Workingpapers/PDF/2021/cpp20210924.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paolo Cavallino & Fiorella De Fiore, 2020. "Central banks' response to Covid-19 in advanced economies," BIS Bulletins 21, Bank for International Settlements.
    2. Gabriel Chodorow-Reich & Olivier M. Darmouni & Cooperman Harry & Stephan Luck & Matthew Plosser, 2020. "Weathering the Storm: Who Can Access Credit in a Pandemic?," Liberty Street Economics 20201013a, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    3. Carlos Cantú & Paolo Cavallino & Fiorella De Fiore & James Yetman, 2021. "A global database on central banks' monetary responses to Covid-19," BIS Working Papers 934, Bank for International Settlements.
    4. Calomiris, Charles W. & Himmelberg, Charles P. & Wachtel, Paul, 1995. "Commercial paper, corporate finance, and the business cycle: a microeconomic perspective," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 203-250, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. David M. Arseneau & José Fillat & Molly Mahar & Donald P. Morgan & Skander J. Van den Heuvel, 2021. "COVID Response: The Main Street Lending Program," Staff Reports 984, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    2. Bruinshoofd Allard & Kool Clemens, 2002. "The Determinants of Corporate Liquidity in the Netherlands," Research Memorandum 014, Maastricht University, Maastricht Research School of Economics of Technology and Organization (METEOR).
    3. Altinoglu, Levent, 2021. "The origins of aggregate fluctuations in a credit network economy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 316-334.
    4. repec:ers:journl:v:xxiv:y:2021:i:3:p:229-240 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Aadland, David, 2005. "Detrending time-aggregated data," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 89(3), pages 287-293, December.
    6. Charles W. Calomiris & Athanasios Orphanides & Steven A. Sharpe, 1994. "Leverage as a state variable for employment, inventory accumulation, and fixed investment," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 94-24, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    7. Frederic Boissay & Stijn Claessens & Alan Villegas, 2020. "Tools for managing banking distress: historical experience and lessons for today," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, December.
    8. Caprio, Gerard, Jr & Demirguc-Kunt, Asli, 1998. "The Role of Long-Term Finance: Theory and Evidence," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 13(2), pages 171-189, August.
    9. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:5:y:2006:i:12:p:1-17 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Kenshi Taketa & Gregory F. Udell, 2007. "Lending Channels and Financial Shocks: The Case of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Trade Credit and the Japanese Banking Crisis," Monetary and Economic Studies, Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies, Bank of Japan, vol. 25(2), pages 1-44, November.
    11. Valentina Peruzzi, 2017. "Does family ownership structure affect investment-cash flow sensitivity? Evidence from Italian SMEs," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(43), pages 4378-4393, September.
    12. Aiyar, Shekhar & Calomiris, Charles W. & Wieladek, Tomasz, 2016. "How does credit supply respond to monetary policy and bank minimum capital requirements?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 142-165.
    13. Simona Mateut, 2005. "Trade Credit and Monetary Policy Transmission," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(4), pages 655-670, September.
    14. Woon Gyu Choi & Mr. Yungsan Kim, 2001. "Monetary Policy and Corporate Liquid Asset Demand," IMF Working Papers 2001/177, International Monetary Fund.
    15. Norden, Lars & Udell, Gregory F. & Wang, Teng, 2020. "Do bank bailouts affect the provision of trade credit?11All errors are our own. The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the authors and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views ," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    16. Yajing Liu & Kenya Fujiwara, 2017. "Financial Crises, Bank Lending, and Trade Credit:Evidence from Chinese Enterprises," Discussion Papers 2017-25, Kobe University, Graduate School of Business Administration.
    17. Guariglia, Alessandra & Mateut, Simona, 2006. "Credit channel, trade credit channel, and inventory investment: Evidence from a panel of UK firms," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(10), pages 2835-2856, October.
    18. Charles W. Calomiris & Carlos D. Ramirez, 1996. "The Role Of Financial Relationships In The History Of American Corporate Finance," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 9(2), pages 52-73, June.
    19. Ann E. Harrison & Inessa Love & Margaret S. McMillan, 2022. "Global capital flows and financing constraints," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Globalization, Firms, and Workers, chapter 8, pages 181-213, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    20. Calomiris, Charles W. & Flandreau, Marc & Laeven, Luc, 2016. "Political foundations of the lender of last resort: A global historical narrative," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 48-65.
    21. Bob Hancke & Toon Van Overbeke & Dustin Voss, 2021. "Similar but different? Comparing economic policy responses to the Corona Crisis in the UK and Germany," LEQS – LSE 'Europe in Question' Discussion Paper Series 165, European Institute, LSE.
    22. Aissata Boubacar Moumouni, 2020. "Investment Sensitivity to Inter-enterprises Payment Deadlines," AMSE Working Papers 1938, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • E51 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Money Supply; Credit; Money Multipliers
    • E65 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Studies of Particular Policy Episodes
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • H12 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Crisis Management
    • H81 - Public Economics - - Miscellaneous Issues - - - Governmental Loans; Loan Guarantees; Credits; Grants; Bailouts

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fip:fedbcq:93068. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Spozio (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbbous.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.