The Federal Reserve has finally opened up the Main Street Lending Program for registration; this is the program targeted towards medium sized businesses up to 15,000 employees and $5 billion in annual revenue; the popular Paycheck Protection Program was only available to companies with less than 500 employees; participating banks “are encouraged to begin making Main Street program loans immediately” according to the press release from the Boston Fed which is administering the program; the Fed will start purchasing a 95% stake in all loans made through the program soon; changes were made to the program just last week lowering the minimum loan amount to $250,000 from $500,000 and extended the loan terms from four to five years. American Banker