Wrong assumption! That is with the CARE act, without it 40-70% of small businesses would have most likely failed.



There are a few reasons. While Mills applauds the number, $347 billion to small business, she is still concerned whether it will be enough. Furthermore, there’s another problem — the logistics of getting that money to businesses before the cash runs out.

“A lot depends on what happens between the banks and the fintechs and the Treasury and the SBA in the next week,” she said. “When I read the bill, it was pretty clear that they were going to rely on the old piping system of the lender banks.”

In Mills’ view, that system may not have the speed required, and banks ought to partner with PayPal (PYPL) and Square (SQ), which have extensive small business networks.

The stakes here are made even higher by the fact that small businesses are delicate.

“If we don't keep these small businesses afloat they're very, very hard to restart,” she said. “If we want to have a very V-shaped, U-shaped curve here in a recovery, we need to keep them solvent for a period of time.”

The current bill has eight weeks of help, but again, Mills said more may be required.