Business ProfileforBiz2Credit, Inc.

The following describes a government action that has been resolved by either a settlement or a decision by a court or administrative agency. If the matter is being appealed, it will be noted below.

On March 18, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced it has taken action against Biz2Credit and charged that they made false promises to small businesses seeking to take part in the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), delaying and sometimes preventing them from obtaining funds they needed to keep their businesses afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic.The company has agreed to settle the FTC’s charges. Biz2Credit will pay $33 million to the FTC for small businesses harmed by their deceptive conduct. These are some of the largest damages amounts ever secured by the agency under Section 19 of the FTC Act, and include money consumers lost because of the companies’ conduct, even if consumers made no payments directly to the companies. These cases are part of the FTC’s continuing work to protect small businesses from deceptive and unfair practices in the marketplace.

In addition to these cases, the FTC recently revised the Telemarketing Sales Rule to extend protections to businesses that are targeted with illegal telemarketing.Biz2Credit, Inc., and its subsidiary, Itria Ventures, have agreed to pay $33 million in damages to settle the Federal Trade Commission’s charges that they deceptively advertised that consumers’ emergency PPP loan applications would be processed in an average of 10-14 business days when, in reality, the average processing took well over a month.The FTC’s complaint that Biz2Credit’s application processing was riddled with delays, and the average processing time was double what the defendants claimed, with tens of thousands of consumers waiting more than two months for a final determination. Even though they were aware of these delays, the defendants continued to make their false timing claims to consumers until nearly the end of the program. Biz2Credit’s promises of fast processing times were critical because the PPP was extraordinarily time-sensitive, providing loans on a first-come, first-served basis. When the program ran out of funds in May 2021, the government stopped accepting new PPP loan applications, leaving some Biz2Credit consumers without any funds. Even the consumers who eventually obtained loans were deprived for a time of funds they needed immediately.

The FTC’s complaint also says that Biz2Credit unfairly ignored many consumers’ repeated and urgent pleas to withdraw their loan applications. As a result, the defendants delayed and sometimes even prevented these consumers from obtaining PPP funds elsewhere. The complaint also alleges that the defendants designed their application process to lock in as many consumers as possible before underwriting these loans, restricting these consumers from submitting additional applications to other PPP lenders. In addition to the $33 million monetary judgment, the settlement with Biz2Credit also prohibits the defendants from misrepresenting key information about loan applications or any material fact about a government benefit. The proposed order also prohibits Biz2Credit from failing to allow consumers to promptly withdraw their applications.