Nine of this year’s Central Penn Business Journal’s Women of Influence and Circle of Excellence honorees have something in common: They’re graduates of one of Leadership Harrisburg Area’s programs.

“CDFIs are committed to supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses in low-income and underserved communities and that means collectively, these CDFIs will help keep paychecks flowing to employees who may need it the most.”

Businesses have until Monday to pay back a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan of $2 million or more to avoid a federal investigation for potentially taking more public funds than they needed to keep the company afloat during the coronavirus pandemic, federal policymakers announced late Wednesday.

Recipients of a less than $2 million loan via the Paycheck Protection Program automatically meet financial qualifications to receive their loan based on economic need, the Small Business Administration said in a Wednesday guideline update. 

Centric Financial Corporation, parent company of Harrisburg-based community bank Centric Bank, has a new Chief Human Resources Officer in Christine Pavlakovich, whose focus is to maintain the bank’s “people-first” culture amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

PNC Financial Services said it will divest its ownership of the New York-based asset manager, except for 500,000 BlackRock shares for a donation to the PNC Foundation by the end of the second quarter of 2020.

Wolf’s moratorium extends an April ruling from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that barred landlords and lenders from removing people from their residences due to inability to meet rent and mortgage payments through May 11. The governor’s executive order extends the same coverage through July 10.

The Central Penn Business Journal has been the leader locally in recognizing high-achieving businesses and leaders across various industries at its awards celebrations. That's not changing.

Six months after announcing a definitive merger agreement, Northwest Bancshares is expanding westward with a $213 million acquisition of Muncie, Indiana’s MutualFirst Financial and subsidiary MutualBank.

From 4 p.m. to 11:59 p.m. today, the Small Business Administration will only accept Paycheck Protection Program loan applications from businesses with assets less than $1 billion, according to a 2 p.m. alert from federal officials.

“Every job is life-sustaining for someone, and the PPP is saving the livelihoods of those in our community,” Orrstown Executive Vice President and Chief Retail Officer Luke Bernstein said in his remarks to the nation Tuesday.

Combined assets between the two community development financial institutions, which will be organized as a single entity under the name Community First Fund, will total $101 million, and $129 million by 2024, Community First Fund officials said in a Tuesday announcement.

The unprecedented volume of crisis loan applications is shifting lender-borrower relationships, as community banks establish lending relationships with small business owners who struggled to receive financial support at bigger banks.

PRLA officials said they will begin accepting applications for HARP on April 23, and the application portal will end May 5. Only the first 1,000 applicants will be accepted during the first round.

The program comes out of a collaboration between nonprofit business groups ASSETS and the Community First Fund, which said they approached city officials with a concept plan to provide loan and grant funds for businesses operating in the city who struggled to access the Paycheck Protection Program loan funds from the Small Business Administration.