Starting today, June 15, The Small Business Administration will begin accepting loans for a temporary new program called America’s Recovery Capital. The loans of up to $35,000 are designed to provide a bridge for viable small businesses with immediate financial hardship – to keep their doors open until they get back on track.

The loans are deferred-payment loans of up to $35,000, available to established, viable, for-profit small businesses that need short-term help to make their principal and interest payments on existing and qualifying business debt. The loans are 100 percent guaranteed by the SBA and have no SBA fees associated with them.

The loans will be disbursed over a period of up to six months and will provide funds to be used for payments of principal and interest for existing, qualifying small business debt including mortgages, term and revolving lines of credit, capital leases, credit card obligations and notes payable to vendors, suppliers and utilities. The administration will pay the interest on the loans to the lenders at the variable rate of prime plus 2 percent.

Repayment will not begin until 12 months after the final disbursement. After the 12-month deferral period, borrowers will pay back the loan principal over a period of five years.

ARC loans will be made by commercial lenders, not The administration directly. For more information on the loans, visit www.sba.gov

For more information about all of the SBA’s programs for small businesses visit the SBA’s Web site at www.sba.gov.