The federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program closed to new applications on Friday as funding was on course to be depleted. That marked the end of a $961 billion emergency effort that support millions of small businesses in surviving the pandemic but was determined by fraud claims and criticism that it didn’t reach the deprived businesses.The program had been scheduled to end on May 31, but the Small Business Administration on Friday stated in a notice to lenders that “due to the large volume of originations today, the portal will be closing for new originations” that evening.Created by the $2 trillion Cares Act that became law in March 2020, the PPP provided coronavirus aid in the form of loans that could be forgiven provided recipients used the funds to retain workers and on other allowable expenses. The SBA as of May 23 had approved 11.6 million PPP loans totaling roughly $796 billion across the program’s initial round, from April to August last year, and its second round, which started in January. Banks and other lenders issued the loans, which the SBA guaranteed.