NEW YORK/BOSTON (Reuters) – Greater than four-fifths of publicly listed firms that acquired emergency small-business loans from the U.S. authorities have held onto them, sticking with a certification that they want the cash, based on knowledge from market analysis agency FactSquared.

Firms that ought to not have utilized for the loans as a result of that they had sufficient assets to get by on their very own had till Could 18 to return the cash with out going through any sanctions. Those who returned the cash introduced it by regulatory filings, that are required inside 4 enterprise days of a significant company occasion.

Sixty-eight firms returned $435.eight million in loans, out of a complete of 424 public firms that had been granted loans totaling $1.35 billion, primarily based on a overview of company filings by FactSquared as of Could 22.

Some 76 public firms that took PPP loans and haven’t mentioned they may return them had sufficient money and money equivalents to cowl working prices till a minimum of June, based on a Reuters evaluation, which was primarily based on firms’ most up-to-date earnings and corporations tracked by FactSquared. Of these firms, 22 acquired loans of a minimum of $2 million.

The loans had been made below the Treasury and Small Enterprise Administration-run Paycheck Safety Program (PPP), which was created by Congress to assist small companies deal with financial fallout of the coronavirus outbreak.

A spokesman for the Treasury declined to remark.

The PPP program has drawn criticism from small-business homeowners and politicians for permitting entry to public firms, given their simpler entry to capital markets.

Firms that utilized for PPP loans needed to certify in “good religion” that “[c]urrent financial uncertainty makes this mortgage request essential to assist the continuing operations of the Applicant.”

The Treasury and the SBA have mentioned they may overview loans of greater than $2 million to ensure firms that acquired them had been actually in want.