The second (third?) Cycle of the Paycheck Protection Program began today and was very different from the initial program launch last April. At the time, the program became very rocky start. This was not repeated today, mainly because the SBA limited the types of lenders to community financial institutions that could submit loans today.

We have covered the PPP program details last month and although the program is very similar to last year, there are big differences in the way it is implemented. Instead of starting with the big banks this time around, the SBA decided that Community development financial institutions (CDFI) and Minority deposit-taking institutions (MDI) would pave the way to ensure that minority-owned and underserved businesses get the first chance to apply.

Businesses looking for their first PPP loan can apply today, and then starting Wednesday, minority-owned businesses that are second time borrowers can apply. The program is expected to open more widely by Friday. One of the largest CDFIs is Sunrise banks in Minnesota (they are also very active in fintech) and they started accept PPP requests.

To be clear, lenders of all sizes are accepting applications today. Nothing prevents a small business that qualifies to submit an application to their lender, they simply won’t go through the SBA unless you are a minority owned business and apply through a CDFI or an MDI.

Many first-round lenders are ready

Bank of the Cross River was third among all banks in the first round of PPP in terms of number of loans granted, behind JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America. They processed many loans directly, but they also worked with dozens of partners, other banks and fintechs, of which they were the lender funding the loans. I spoke with a rep there today who said they are getting ready for the second round. They will work with partners again and they have had their PPP pre-application in place for borrowers who wish to work directly with them.

Client bank was another major player in the PPP. Their home page right now is dedicated to PPP and describes three offerings: for new PPP borrowers, regular borrowers, and a new white label program. The latter program is new as they realized that other banks needed help in offering PPP loans to their customers. They have already signed several banks into this program, including one of the larger banks which will send their excess customers to Customers Bank. There is very little integration needed to be part of this program, it mainly consists of a simple link as Customers Bank manages the whole process.

cabbage was the largest non-bank lender in the original PPP program, with approximately 300,000 loans. Since that time, Kabbage has been acquired by American Express and they still have to make new loans since the acquisition. An outgrowth of this acquisition was the creation of K Servicing to manage all existing Kabbage loans. Small business owners who have taken out a PPP loan with Kabbage will be able to apply for a second loan through K Maintenance.

Lendio was another major player in the first round of the PPP. CEO Brock Blake was highly publicized, appearing regularly on television and his Twitter feed has become one of the best sources of information. Lendio is not a lender, but has been working with dozens of lenders and taking preliminary PPP applications for a few weeks now. They will hire hundreds of workers to help process the flood of new P3 loan applications.

Biz2 Credit offers both a white label loan solution, through Biz2x, as well as direct loans to small businesses. They can offer banks their Biz2X Accelerate SBA platform with full white label capabilities or they can help banks and non-banks earn referral fees by offering a full outsourcing solution. According to their website, more than 350 banks are already registered.

There are dozens of other fintechs and banks that will be working extremely hard over the next few weeks to ensure that small businesses have access to the financing they need to survive. PPP is such a critical program and now that we have nine months of experience the rollout should be a lot smoother. Fintech lenders and banks are ready. Bring it on.

Peter Renton is the President and Co-Founder of LendIt Fintech, the world’s first and largest digital media and events company focused on fintech. Peter has been writing about fintech since 2010 and is the author and creator of the Fintech One-on-One podcast, the first and longest-running fintech interview series. Peter has been interviewed by The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The New York Times, CNBC, CNN, Fortune, NPR, Fox Business News, The Financial Times, and dozens of other publications.