U.S. Small Business Administration

Congress created the PPP to provide loans to small businesses to mitigate the disastrous effects of COVID-19 on the economy. To achieve this purpose, PPP funds needed to be disbursed quickly. SBA did exactly that, providing 14 years’ worth of federally-backed loans in just 14 days. This could only be achieved by applying most fraud controls post-origination. Since mid-2021, SBA has applied a unique set of fraud detection technologies – Machine Learning, Entity Resolution, and Network Analysis – to its loan portfolio to identify potentially fraudulent networks of borrowers/lenders. By targeting networks, SBA used its resources and those of government enforcement agencies more efficiently.