By Reuters Wire Service

The Small Business Administration on Wednesday said it would be temporarily closing its Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) assistance program for small businesses to all but the country’s smallest lenders, in a bid to give them fair access.

“To ensure access to the PPP loan program for the smallest lenders and their small business customers, starting at 4 p.m. today EDT through 11:59 p.m. EDT, SBA systems will only accept loans from lending institutions with asset sizes less than $1 billion dollars,” the agency said.