The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston sold all outstanding loans from a Covid-era program that ended in January 2021 to Marblegate Asset Management, an alternative investment firm that invests in credit opportunities.

The Federal Reserve said the 2020 Main Street Lending Program was designed to help credit flow to small- and medium-sized, for-profit businesses and nonprofit organizations that were in stable financial condition before the onset of the pandemic, but needed loans to help their operations.

The program during the pandemic was targeted at businesses that were too small to access capital markets, but too large to benefit from typical small business relief programs. The program made a total of $16.6 billion loans to small and midsized businesses and nonprofits, the Boston Fed said. Those loans were supposed to be paid back by early January 2026.

The Boston Fed said that the program extended five-year loans with an average loan size of $9.1 million. Over 75% of borrowers fully repaid their loans, and the remaining loan participations not paid in full by original maturity were sold to facilitate a cost-effective resolution of the program for taxpayers.

"All equity provided by the Treasury Department under the CARES Act has been returned. The program anticipates a modest return to the taxpayer," the Boston Fed said.