Data disclosures must be enhanced for small business lending so that the public can thoroughly assess financial institutions’ lending practices to women, minorities, and working-class Americans. With enhanced data disclosure, regulatory agencies can more effectively enforce fair lending laws and banks are generally more motivated to serve overlooked small businesses.
NCRC applauds Congress for passing these provisions as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. We will continue advocating for speedy implementation of these requirements by the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. The new requirements are:
- Collect race and gender data for small business owners receiving loans.
- Disclose the census tract level for individual banks (as opposed to categories of census tracts).
- Separately report originations, renewals, and denials of loans.
- Provide more precise information on the revenue size of the small business applying for credit.
- Restore the requirement under CRA for intermediate sized banks to provide small business and farm data, so as to offer more meaningful information for rural areas.
