The saying “Think globally, act locally” has a parallel in how news is received.

Whether international or digital sources, national press, broadcasters or print, headlines stressing Big News can seem to imply important events or acts happen far away, not in our backyards,

Sometimes, the effects – or the participants – are close by.

A recent “Watchdog” story in the Chicago Sun-Times was an excellent analysis of Small Business Administration data showing how U.S. banks handled fees they charged for federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans. Journalists Lauren Fitzpatrick and Stephanie Zimmerman put into financial – and some geographic – context the bank practice of charging fees to get aid to businesses hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic.

PPP started in April last year after the pandemic forced businesses to close and jeopardizing not just employment, but the economy. PPP was intended to help small businesses and their workers, and it was launched with $342 billion in forgivable loans. Administered through banks, PPP let banks charge a processing fee, and U.S. banks have earned more than $48 billion in such fees from April 3, 2020, through March of this year.

Illinois banks issued $29 billion through 239,000 PPP loans and collected $1.5 billion in fees, the reporters found.

“Illinois ranked 10th among states for total fees and 7th for dollars provided in the loans, which did not need to be repaid as long as businesses spent all of the money to keep employees on the payroll and pay rent and utilities,” they wrote.

The Sun-Times piece covered Illinois, but understandably focused on Chicago, their main market.

A “deeper dive” demonstrates downstate banks’ experiences, too.

I’m no anti-bank zealot. I have accounts in a small, independent community bank, a mortgage in a larger (formerly local) bank, and a credit union, so this information is meant to more fully show that banks around here generated considerable fees as well as Chicago institutions.

Plus, the average Illinois bank fee – paid by the government, meaning ultimately taxpayers – was relatively low (5.29%); New Jersey banks averaged 11.6%. The government’s PPP rules have varied, but generally, banks could charge 1% on the largest loans, 3% to 5% on smaller ones, and up to $2,500 on loans of less than $50,000.

Again, borrowers didn’t pay; the government did.

Further, most of the federally guaranteed loans Illinois banks processed – 191,000 of them – went to Illinois businesses. The remainder of the loans, totaling some $365 million, was for businesses outside the state.

The banking industry defends the processing-fee practice as the nation getting its money’s worth by having banks ensure the funds quickly got to businesses. But critics say it would have been just as fast and cheaper to eliminate the processing step like some European countries did with direct payments to businesses.

For local/area references, here are the top 10 Illinois banks that charged fees for processing the PPP loans (their headquarters and presence throughout the state) and the PPP fees they charged, according to the SBA and bankbranchlocator.com.

Six of the 10 are based outside the city of Chicago, and three operate exclusively downstate.

• BMO Harris Bank (Chicago HQ: 184 branches in 107 communities; 2 downstate) – $232,882,250
• First Midwest Bank* (Chicago: 100 branches in 70 towns; 7 downstate) – $79,856,409
• CIBC Bank USA (Chicago: 19 branches in 17 communities; none downstate) – $59,666,551
• Busey Bank (Champaign: 58 branches in 42 communities; 28 downstate) – $46,690,490
• Byline Bank (Chicago: 60 branches in 23 towns; none downstate) – $45,269,415
• Wintrust Bank (Rosemont: 31 branches in 7 communities; none downstate) – $41,469,092
• Carrollton Bank (Carrolltown: 6 branches in 6 communities; all downstate) – $30,977,431
• First Mid Bank & Trust (Mattoon: 60 branches in 41 towns; all downstate) – $25,697,197
• Morton Community Bank** (Morton: 34 branches in 27 towns; all downstate) – $23,407,018
• First American Bank (Elk Grove Village: 49 branches in 38 communities; none downstate) – $23,071,822

* First Midwest last month merged with Indiana-based Old National Bank, and the new entity will operate as Old National, with headquarters in Evansville, Ind., and Chicago.
** A subsidiary of Hometown Community Bancorp, Inc.