New York State Superintendent of Financial Services Adrienne A. Harris has issued a revised proposed regulation that would allow the state’s Department of Financial Services (DFS) to collect data regarding how well New York-regulated banks are serving minority- and women-owned businesses.
The proposal is pursuant to an expansion of New York State’s Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), addresses comments received by DFS during an earlier comment period and is subject to a 45-day comment period after it is published in the State Register, DFS said Wednesday (Oct. 26) in a press release.
“Banks must meet the needs of all consumers, including minority and women business owners, who historically have been denied fair access to credit,” Harris said in the release. “This revised regulation ensures DFS has the necessary data to verify that banks are providing equitable access to financial products, creating a fairer financial system.”
The proposed regulation would require banks to collect and submit to DFS data about whether a business applying for a loan or credit is minority- or women-owned as well as the date, type of credit, amount, whether the application was approved, size of the business and location of the business, according to the release.
The revisions included in the newly updated proposal establish how banks should solicit, collect, store and report the information; that to the extent feasible, the information should not be accessible to underwriters; how long banks should preserve the information; and a sample data collection form, the release stated.
Inequality in access to financial services and products is stubborn and still needs to be addressed, Harris told PYMNTS’ Karen Webster in an interview posted in May.
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Providers must be mindful of the fact that underserved populations — just as is the case with affluent consumers — want to have a choice in how they conduct their financial lives, Harris said at the time.
