SAN FRANCISCO – The California Reinvestment Coalition along with more than 60 California-based organizations last week submitted a comment letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on the proposed Section 1071 small business data collection rule.
The rule would require the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to collect critical data on the race, ethnicity and gender of small-business borrowers. The proposed rule would increase access to credit for small businesses owned by people of color and women.
“We are deeply concerned about historic redlining, lack of access to bank loans, and the resulting proliferation of high-cost credit, which have devastated and damaged business owners who are women, people of color and those operating their small businesses in neighborhoods of color,” the comment letter reads.
The letter goes on to say, “Robust small business data collection through the Section 1071 rule will result in enhanced transparency, more responsible lending practices, targeted enforcement of fair lending laws, informed policymaking, healthier markets, and reduced racial and gender wealth gaps.”
For years, CRC has fought for regulators to implement a data collection rule. In 2019, CRC, represented by Democracy Forward, sued the Trump Administration for defying the Dodd-Frank Act by unlawfully failing to collect and disclose data on lending to women-owned, minority-owned and small businesses.