Promoting Transparency in Small Business Lending
This spring was full of opportunities to connect with partners, lawmakers, and government officials to inform policies that support and protect small business owners at the federal and state level, including meeting with Rohit Chopra, Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, during the California Reinvestment Coalition’s Advocacy Week, speaking with Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal at the NCRC Just Economy Conference, and visiting Sacramento to meet with lawmakers during California CDFI Day with the California Coalition for Community Investment.
Additionally, the end of March marked two major milestones for federal and state-level policies affecting small business lending:
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) finalized a new rule requiring banks and other lenders to provide transparent data—including race, ethnicity, gender and geographic location of borrowers—for their small business lending. This data will help with enforcement of fair lending laws and in identifying and addressing barriers to capital access. Working Solutions celebrates this new rule as a step in the right direction to reduce discrimination and increase access to capital for women and minority entrepreneurs. Learn more here.
The California Senate Banking and Financial Institutions and Judiciary Committee held a hearing to consider SB 33, which would provide California entrepreneurs with permanent access to clear, honest information about commercial financing products by extending SB 1235, the first small business lending disclosure law in the country. Working Solutions believes all small business owners deserve common sense transparency about the price of their financing. Our communities stay vibrant when small business owners have access to responsible, affordable capital that will help their business thrive, not force them out of business.
Working Solutions is proud to work with our partners to advance policies that support and protect small business owners at the federal and state level.
