Jack Henry Lending is offering an integrated solution for FIs unable to service loan applicants, just in time for this week’s launch of another round of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans.

The Monnet, Mo.-based tech company has helped approximately 400 banks and credit unions handle PPP requests from small businesses. During the previous funding round, Jack Henry helped process more than 70,000 loans with a total of $6.5 billion in requests, but was unable to assist banks if the lending institution couldn’t make the loan.

“We didn’t have a place for them to go,” Terry Renoux, head of Jack Henry Lending, told Bank Innovation. “So the lesson learned was those customers, those borrowers, ended up having to go find another source for their loan,” which “aggravated their relationship with their bank.” Renoux added, “We needed a place to refer to loans to that we would be confident they would be looked at and be funded in a timely fashion.”

To address the issue, Jack Henry last week announced a partnership with Biz2Credit, a $387 million fintech lender that offers alternatives to small businesses whose community banks cannot handle their loans. Banks unable to supply loans can automatically forward them to Biz2Credit, without any exchange of funds or costs to the originating financial institution.

Renoux hopes the solution will bridge a gap that existed during the first PPP round. “If you look at community banks, there’s just hundreds [of them] and they live and operate and work and buy directly from the small businesses. That’s the connection that I’m trying to continue to make sure our solution solves,” he said.

Jack Henry also added an option for customers to use a “do-it-yourself” interface with the PPP application between the first round of PPP applications and the forgiveness phase. The interface allows small businesses to upload and enter all their loan information online, freeing bank staff from do so manually.

For the DIY interface, Jack Henry partnered with SMB loan marketplace Lendio, which collects data for the bank and sends it to the SBA via its secure E-Tran connection. Jack Henry already had a long partnership with software company Wolters Kluwer, using its TSoftPlus back-end solution to support loan processing while managing compliance and risk management concerns. To support these partnerships, Jack Henry built an API to connect the platforms back to its core system, Renoux explained.

The whole process was complicated by how little was known in advance about the PPP process at first.

“Some of what we did was just absolutely on the fly during the first two rounds, because we had to be as ready as we could be. But there were parts that we learned that needed to be improved upon, especially for forgiveness, because, when we stood up the solution for the first two rounds of PPP, we didn’t even know what forgiveness was going to require,” Renoux said.

Jack Henry required its client institutions to sign a one-year contract for managing their PPP loans, and anticipates keeping most of its 400 or so customers for the upcoming $284 billion funding round, Renoux said.

Jack Henry’s solution has helped the Peoples Bank of Alabama close nearly $80 million in loans to date, said Jim Kenney, the bank’s chief information officer and chief operating officer. The $825 million bank based in Cullman, Ala., helped more than 600 businesses with PPP loans, Kenney noted.

“We stood up our portal in just a day’s time and were able to accept applications since day one,” Kenney stated. “We were already closing loans by the time other vendors in the market were just announcing they had a solution ready. Working closely with Jack Henry, we have been able to swiftly step up to the plate to serve our community in a time of crisis, which is what banking is all about.”