Pandemic Darlings The pandemic economy, in original documents
Home Profiles ServisFirst Bank

Profiles · Companies and entities

ProfileCompany or group

ServisFirst Bank

Lender or loan platform

PPP
Type
Company or group
Role
Lender or loan platform
Programs
PPP
Updated

The profile

An Alabama business bank that made 7,395 PPP loans averaging $198,967 and became the lead defendant in the first agents' lawsuit over PPP fees. The court's answer: "The short answer is 'no.'"

  • Type: State-chartered bank; PPP lender
  • Parent: ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (Birmingham, Alabama)

In the archive

ServisFirst Bank made 7,395 Paycheck Protection Program loans for $1.5 billion, in the SBA's loan file. The loans averaged $198,967, and 4,922 of them went to Alabama borrowers.1 Almost half of them, 3,467 for $903 million, were approved in the program's first two weeks, April 3 to 16, 2020.1 Priced loan by loan under the SBA's fee schedule, the book carries about $51.7 million in processing fees.12 The bank's own filings give $14.1 million of PPP origination fees recorded to interest income in 2020 and $27.3 million in 2021, with $7.2 million still unaccreted at the end of 2021.3 See its lender page.

Sport & Wheat v. ServisFirst

The case that gave the agent-fee fight its name was filed in Pensacola on April 26, 2020. Sport & Wheat, a Florida accounting firm, said it had helped borrowers get PPP loans from ServisFirst, Synovus, The First and Truist, and that the banks kept the agent's share of the SBA fee. Its amended complaint claimed $941.65 of the fee paid to ServisFirst.45

Judge T. Kent Wetherell II framed the question as whether agents were entitled to part of the fees paid to lenders for "hundreds of billions of dollars of 'loans'" under the PPP, and answered: "The short answer is 'no.'" He noted the case was "apparently the first of what is now at least 50 cases pending around the country raising the same issue."5 On September 4, 2020 he denied leave to amend as futile and dismissed the case with prejudice.6 The Agents Got Nothing follows the cases that came after it.

Sources

Notes

  1. SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data, release of Sept. 30, 2024, loans with ServisFirst Bank as originating lender, priced under 85 FR 20811, 86 FR 3692 and 86 FR 3712; see the lender page. Original: SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data (original: data.sba.gov · stored capture) ↩
  2. SBA interim final rule, Paycheck Protection Program, 85 FR 20811 (Apr. 15, 2020). ↩
  3. ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc., Form 10-K for 2021. Original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1430723/000117184322001394/sfbs20211231_10k.htm ↩
  4. Verified emergency class action complaint, Sport & Wheat CPA, PA v. ServisFirst Bank, Inc., No. 3:20-cv-05425 (N.D. Fla. Apr. 26, 2020). Original: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flnd.190491/gov.uscourts.flnd.190491.1.0.pdf ↩
  5. Order dismissing amended complaint, Sport & Wheat, CPA, PA v. ServisFirst Bank, Inc. (N.D. Fla. Aug. 17, 2020), Doc. 87. Original: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flnd.190491/gov.uscourts.flnd.190491.87.0_1.pdf ↩
  6. Order denying leave to amend and dismissing with prejudice, Sport & Wheat, CPA, PA v. ServisFirst Bank, Inc. (N.D. Fla. Sept. 4, 2020), Doc. 93. Original: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flnd.190491/gov.uscourts.flnd.190491.93.0.pdf ↩
Back to top