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WebBank

Lender or loan platform

PPP · PPPLF
Type
Company or group
Role
Lender or loan platform
Programs
PPP, PPPLF
Updated
  • Type: Utah-chartered industrial bank; banking-as-a-service originating bank for fintech brand partners.
  • Legal entities: WebBank (Salt Lake City, Utah; FDIC member industrial bank).
  • Founded: 1997, Salt Lake City.
  • HQ: Salt Lake City, Utah.
  • CEO: Jason Lloyd, President & CEO (see his profile).
  • Role in PPP: Lender of record behind partner-branded PPP programs, most visibly PayPal's, holding the SBA fee row and the Federal Reserve PPPLF borrowing while the partner brand owned the borrower interface.

In the archive

Pandemic-role map

  • Reader shorthand: lender of record behind PayPal's PPP program.
  • What WebBank did for borrowers: originated and held PPP loans that borrowers experienced as PayPal (and other partner) products; WebBank ran no dedicated public PPP page of its own.
  • Where responsibility sat: WebBank was the SBA lender of record and the PPPLF borrower; PayPal serviced the loans and recognized servicing-fee revenue without owning the receivables.

Before the pandemic (1997–early 2020)

WebBank spent two decades renting its Utah industrial-bank charter to fintech lending programs, originating loans that consumer and small-business brands marketed and serviced. Its archived May 2020 homepage was a minimal deposits-and-brand-partners page; PayPal appeared among the brand partners.

During the pandemic (March 2020 – 2022)

WebBank made 119,182 Paycheck Protection Program loans worth $3.18 billion, an average of about $26,718, "primarily with one of its lending partners," in the words of its parent's mid-2020 10-Q. Steel Partners' filings from 2020 to 2024 do not name the partner. PayPal's January 2021 release did, in one line: "The lender for Paycheck Protection Program loans provided through PayPal is WebBank, Member FDIC." PayPal's January 12, 2021 investor notice and its October 2020 letter to California regulators also (we do not have copies of either) named WebBank as the lender. In April 2020 PayPal had announced SBA approval "as one of the first non-bank institutions" in the program. The SBA's loan file lists no loan with PayPal as originating or servicing lender.

The Fed funded the loans

WebBank is a Utah-chartered industrial bank and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Steel Partners Holdings, so its results appear in Steel Partners' SEC filings, in a financial services segment that consists primarily of WebBank. Outside PPP, it originates consumer and small-business loans that its marketing partners then buy, in whole or in part. The PPP loans went onto its own balance sheet as long-term loans receivable. The mid-2020 10-Q says they "were funded by the PPP Liquidity Facility" and that "their repayment is guaranteed by the SBA." The Fed charged 0.35% on the facility. The notes accrued interest at 1%. The SBA's processing fees were booked as loan origination fees, with "net deferred fees" recognized "as a yield adjustment" and the remainder taken into interest income when a loan was paid off or forgiven. PPP loans also carried a zero risk weight under bank capital rules.

Total assets went from $960.7 million at the end of 2019 to $2.70 billion at mid-2020. Deposits fell from $754.8 million to $355.7 million over 2020. WebBank drew 256 PPPLF advances totaling $3.65 billion between April 16, 2020 and July 14, 2021, with $2.75 billion outstanding at the peak on May 10, 2021. In Steel Partners' 2021 10-K, that segment's average equity for 2020 was 8.9% of average assets, and 24.6% "excluding PPP loans."

What WebBank booked

Steel Partners' August 2020 investor letter said WebBank "completed approximately $2.1 billion of PPP loans with our partners" in the second quarter. The same letter said "Kelly Barnett is the President of WebBank." WebBank's leadership page, archived May 11, 2021, listed "Jason Lloyd – President."

The filings put interest earned on PPP loans at $14.9 million in 2020, $23.1 million in 2021 and $3.2 million in 2022, or $41.2 million over three years. Applying the SBA's lender-fee schedule to WebBank's loans in the SBA data gives about $214.5 million in processing fees; that figure is a calculation, and the filings give no fee total. The filings do not reconcile the two figures or say whether any fee was shared with the partner.

Partner lending fell in 2020

WebBank sold $11.36 billion of held-for-sale loans in 2020, against $23.86 billion in 2019. The 2020 10-K attributes the lower year-end held-for-sale balance to "reduced lending by WebBank's partners due to the economic impact of COVID-19." The allowance for loan losses rose 43% in the first quarter of 2020, which the 10-Q attributes primarily to COVID-19. The segment's revenue fell 16.0% in 2020 on lower origination volume, and personnel expenses fell on "cost reduction actions due to the economic impact of COVID-19." The filings print no WebBank headcount or layoff figure; their employee counts cover the whole company. In April 2020 Steel Partners announced salary reductions of up to 30% for salaried employees, furloughs and a 401(k) match suspension, without breaking out the bank. WebBank's net income was $50.0 million in 2019, $51.7 million in 2020 and $61.1 million in 2021. For the first nine months of 2021, the segment's loan-loss provision was $32.6 million lower than a year earlier, which the 10-Q attributes to reversing COVID-19 reserve adjustments on "better loan performance than expected."

WebBank's homepage carried no PPP terms of its own

Wayback Machine copies of WebBank's homepage from May 2020 and August 2021 (we have copies) carry no PPP terms of its own; PPP activity surfaced through partner fintech sites. WebBank's PayPal partner page, archived October 31, 2020, listed PayPal Working Capital, PayPal Business Loans and Loan Builder loans and did not mention PPP.

Forgiveness and what remains

Steel Partners reported that SBA forgiveness payments, loan sales and borrower payments during 2021 came to $2.77 billion, 89.3% of WebBank's PPP portfolio, and that forgiveness and borrower payments through 2022 came to 98.4%. The SBA data shows $2.97 billion forgiven and 4,721 loans, with $164.3 million in approved amounts, charged off. It lists Customers Bank as servicer on 21,336 WebBank-originated loans. The 2021 10-K says PPP loans were "sold" and does not name a buyer. Steel Partners' annual reports for 2020 through 2023 list a risk factor that WebBank "is subject to risks of litigation from its borrowers or others regarding the processing of loans" under the program. The same risk factor warns that the SBA may not fund some or all of the program's loan guaranties. As of February 28, 2026, 40 WebBank advances were still open at the Fed, totaling $108,504.24.

After the pandemic (2023 – present)

No PPP-fraud finding, enforcement action, or congressional case study involving WebBank has been located: it is not among the lenders examined in the House Select Subcommittee's December 2022 fintech-PPP report (we do not have a copy of the SBA statement), and no False Claims Act or FTC matter about its PPP book has been located. The bank continues as a partner bank for fintech lending programs, including PayPal's (we do not have copies of the PayPal pages). Jason Lloyd remains President & CEO (see his profile).

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