The Paycheck Protection Program wound down on Aug. 8 with slightly over $525 billion in loans approved. National and regional banks constituted most of the top lenders, but a few smaller banks managed to stand out.

The U.S.'s largest bank by assets, JPMorgan Chase & Co., racked up the most PPP loans with $29.35 billion of net approvals. In second place, Bank of America Corp. tallied $25.56 billion in net approvals.

Meanwhile, Cross River Bank, a Fort Lee, N.J.-based community bank with less than $10 billion in assets, was the only community bank in the top 15. It netted $6.55 billion in approvals, the 12th-most of any lender in the program. Before the PPP began, Cross River reported $2.53 billion in assets as of March 31. At the end of June, PPP loans accounted for 77.5% of Cross River's total loan book.

Cross River, along with other banks like Salt Lake City-based WebBank and Celtic Bank Corp., leveraged partnerships with financial technology firms to supercharge their ability to reach small business clients across the country. These three banks, along with 18 others, reported PPP loans in excess of 50% of total loans at the end of June.

Similarly, eight banks established since 2018 reported at least half of all their loans were PPP loans at the end of the second quarter.

U.S. credit unions reported $8.34 billion in PPP loans outstanding at the end of June, led by Sandy, Utah-based Mountain America FCU at $346.8 million. Vienna, Va.-based Navy FCU, the nation's largest credit union by assets by a wide margin, reported $143.4 million in PPP loans outstanding as of June 30, the seventh-highest sum among credit unions.