WHEREAS, The United States Department of the Treasury, in an April 2000 report, found that, on average, communities that were between 50 and 80 percent minority received less than ten percent of all small business loans nationally; and
WHEREAS, The national trend is closely mirrored in the Philadelphia region, where the Greater Philadelphia Capital Access Report revealed that less than 10 percent of small business lending is done in communities that are more than twenty percent black; and
WHEREAS, The original intent of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act was to prevent lenders from collecting race and gender data from applicants seeking business loans in order to protect the civil rights of said applicants; and
WHEREAS, The de facto effect of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act has been to mask lending patterns to minorities and women seeking business loans; and
WHEREAS, The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act was amended in the early 1990’s to allow home mortgage applicants to voluntarily supply race and gender information, which has enabled the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council to create aggregate and disclosure reports that track home mortgage lending patterns by race and gender; and
WHEREAS, A similar amendment to the Equal Credit Opportunity Act would allow the FFEIC to track small business loan patterns by race and gender, thus providing the tool necessary to work toward the elimination of disparities; now therefore
RESOLVED, THAT THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, Urges the United States House of Representatives to adopt H.R. 3372, the “Access and Openness in Small Business Lending Act of 2001,” which amends the Equal Credit Opportunity Act.
FURTHER RESOLVED, That an Engrossed copy of this resolution be presented to the National Community Reinvestment Coalition in recognition of its strong advocacy and support for equal credit opportunities for all Americans.
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