The federal government on Friday morning announced that businesses who received a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan of $50,000 or less have a simplified process to seek forgiveness for their outstanding balance.

According to publicly available data, 70,331 PPP loans worth a combined $6,245,496,446 were distributed to companies in Alabama between when the program opened in the spring and closed on August 8.

“Today’s action streamlines the forgiveness process for PPP borrowers with loans of $50,000 or less and thousands of PPP lenders who worked around the clock to process loans quickly,” said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a release, who added that his department remains on guard “against fraud and misuse of funds.”

The exact share of Alabama’s PPP  loans eligible for the simplified forgiveness process is not available due to the limits on what data has been made public. Reporting from CNN shows that a little over 7,000 businesses in the state received more than $150,000 in their loans, for a total of $2.9 billion; such firms would be ineligible for the new forgiveness process.

Per the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) website, PPP loans are “fully forgiven if the funds are used for payroll costs, interest on mortgages, rent and utilities.

SBA adds that “at least 60% of the forgiven amount must have been used for payroll.” Complete information on PPP forgiveness can be found here.

The simplified forgiveness application can be found here, with instructions on how to complete the form available here.

Henry Thornton is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can contact him by email: [email protected] or on Twitter @HenryThornton95