Two financial institutions have now been sued in separate putative class action lawsuits concerning their implementation of the CARES Act’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which is aimed at assisting small businesses keep employees on their payroll. Plaintiffs in both lawsuits allege that the financial institutions are unlawfully restricting access to PPP loans. The first case was filed against Bank of America claiming that the plaintiff was unlawfully excluded from the program because it is only a depository customer without a pre-existing debt relationship with the Bank. The second case, filed against Wells Fargo, similarly alleges that Wells Fargo is only providing access to PPP loans to existing customers with a business checking account that had been active as of February 2020. Both cases are brought under the CARES Act and Small Business’ Administration’s 7(A) loan program, 15 U.S.C. 636(a), and seek declaratory judgments and injunctions (with an additional claim for unjust enrichment in the Bank of America case). The plaintiffs essentially allege that the institutions are improperly attempting to use the program as a form of credit enhancement. The cases are Profiles, Inc. v. Bank of Am. Corp., et al., No. 1:20-cv-00894-SAG (D. Md.) & Scherer v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., No. 4:20-cv-01295 (S.D. Tex.).