Finance
SBA Offers Financial Relief to Los Angeles County Businesses and Residents Impacted by Devastating Wildfires
Administrator Guzman to Travel to Southern California to Assess Needs
WASHINGTON, Jan. 09, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Today, SBA Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman announced that low-interest federal disaster loans are now available to Southern California businesses, homeowners, renters and private nonprofit (PNP) organizations following President Joe Biden’s major disaster declaration. The declaration covers Los Angeles and the contiguous counties of Kern, Orange, San Bernardino, and Ventura due to wildfires and straight-line winds that began Jan. 7, 2025.
Administrator Guzman also will join FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell in Southern California this week to assess on-the-ground needs and ensure the SBA is fully prepared to assist businesses, homeowners, and renters impacted by this disaster.
“As heroic firefighters and first responders continue to battle the devastating wildfires sweeping across Southern California, the federal government is surging resources to ensure that Angelenos are prepared to recover and rebuild from this catastrophe,” said SBA Administrator Guzman. “In response to President Biden’s major disaster declaration, the SBA is mobilizing to provide financial relief to impacted businesses and residents. Our continued prayers are with the brave individuals working to put out these fires as well as all those who have lost loved ones, their homes, and their businesses to this disaster. We stand ready to support our fellow Americans for as long as it takes.”
Loans are available to businesses of all sizes and PNP organizations to repair or replace damaged or destroyed real estate, machinery, equipment, inventory, and other business assets. The SBA also offers Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDLs) to small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, small businesses engaged in aquaculture, and most PNP organizations to help meet working capital needs caused by the disaster, even if there is no physical damage. EIDLs may be used to pay fixed debts, payroll, accounts payable, and other expenses that would have been met if not for the disaster. Businesses can apply for loans of up to $2 million.
Disaster loans of up to $500,000 are available to homeowners to repair or replace damaged or destroyed real estate. Homeowners and renters also are eligible for up to $100,000 to repair or replace damaged or destroyed personal property, including personal vehicles.
Interest rates can be as low as 4% for businesses, 3.625% for PNP organizations, and 2.563% for homeowners and renters, with terms up to 30 years. Loan amounts and terms are set by the SBA and based on each applicant’s financial condition. Interest does not begin to accrue until 12 months from the date of the first disaster loan disbursement and loan repayment can be deferred 12 months from the date of the first disbursement.
00:00:06 Speaker A
All right. Time now for to watch Wednesday, June 11th. We’ll start off on the earnings front here. We’re going to be getting some big names tomorrow. That will include Oracle, Chewy, and Victoria’s Secret. Oracle, by the way, announced some results for the fourth quarter after the market close. And it was expecting Oracle’s cloud unit to grow faster than expected, possibly more than 54% this quarter based on results from other names in the space, such as Microsoft and Google.
00:00:38 Speaker B
And taking a look at the economy, we’ll get fresh inflation data coming out in the morning with the Consumer Price Index, that’s CPI. Economists forecast total CPI will hold steady at 0.2%, while core CPI could tick up to 0.3% on a month over month basis. On a year over year basis, total and core CPI expected to rise to 2.5 and 2.8%, respectively.
00:01:08 Speaker A
And moving over to housing, weekly mortgage rate application data, that’s coming out in the morning. Last week’s number, decreasing 3.9% from the week prior, marking the third consecutive week of declines.
LONDON -Financial firms in Britain will be able to test artificial intelligence tools later this year in a regulatory “sandbox” launched on Monday by the country’s financial watchdog, part of a broader government strategy to support innovation and economic growth.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has partnered with U.S. chipmaker Nvidia to provide access to advanced computing power and bespoke AI software through what it calls a “Supercharged Sandbox.”
A sandbox refers to a controlled environment where companies can test new ideas such as products, services or technologies.
The programme is intended to help firms in the early stages of exploring AI, offering access to technical expertise, better datasets and regulatory support, the FCA said. It is open to all financial services companies experimenting with AI.
“This collaboration will help those that want to test AI ideas but who lack the capabilities to do so,” Jessica Rusu, the FCA’s chief data, information and intelligence officer, said. “We’ll help firms harness AI to benefit our markets and consumers, while supporting economic growth.”
Finance minister Rachel Reeves has urged Britain’s regulators to remove barriers to economic growth, describing it as an “absolute top priority” for the government.
In April, she said she was pleased with how the FCA and the Prudential Regulation Authority, part of the Bank of England, were responding to her call to cut red tape.
Nvidia said the initiative would allow firms to explore AI-powered innovations in a secure environment, using its accelerated computing platform.
“AI is fundamentally reshaping the financial sector,” said Jochen Papenbrock, EMEA head of financial technology at Nvidia, citing improvements in data analysis, automation and risk management.
He added that the sandbox will provide firms with a “secure environment to explore AI innovations using Nvidia’s full-stack accelerated computing platform, supporting industry-wide growth and efficiency.”
The testing is set to begin in October.
(Reporting by Sam Tabahriti; Editing by David Holmes)
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