I 

108TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1748

To amend the Equal Credit Opportunity Act to permit the collection of 

demographic information in connection with small business loan applications with the applicant’s consent, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 10, 2003

Mr. MCGOVERN (for himself, Mr. UDALL of New Mexico, Ms. JACKSON-LEE

of Texas, Ms. NORTON, Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA, Mrs. DAVIS of California, 

Mr. DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. OWENS, Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of 

Texas, Ms. LEE, and Mr. GUTIERREZ) introduced the following bill; 

which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services 

A BILL

To amend the Equal Credit Opportunity Act to permit the 

collection of demographic information in connection with 

small business loan applications with the applicant’s consent, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Access and Openness 

5 in Small Business Lending Act of 2003’’. 
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1 SEC. 2. SMALL BUSINESS LOAN DATA COLLECTION. 

2 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Equal Credit Opportunity 

3 Act (15 U.S.C. 1691 et seq.) is amended by inserting after 

4 section 704A the following new section: 

5 ‘‘SEC. 704B. SMALL BUSINESS LOAN DATA COLLECTION. 

6 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Subject to the requirements of 

7 this section, in the case of any application to a depository 

8 institution for credit for a small business, the depository 

9 institution shall—

10 ‘‘(1) inquire whether the business is a women11 or minority-owned business, without regard to 

12 whether such application is received in person, by 

13 mail, by telephone, by electronic mail or other form 

14 of electronic transmission, or by any other means 

15 and whether or not such application is in response 

16 to a solicitation by the depository institution; and 

17 ‘‘(2) maintain a record of the responses to such 

18 inquiry separate from the application and accom19 panying information. 

20 ‘‘(b) RIGHT TO REFUSE.—Any applicant for credit 

21 may refuse to provide any information requested pursuant 

22 to subsection (a) in connection with any application for 

23 credit. 

24 ‘‘(c) NO ACCESS BY UNDERWRITERS.—No loan un25 derwriter or other officer or employee of the depository 

26 institution, or any affiliate of the depository institution, 
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1 involved in making any determination concerning an appli2 cation for credit shall have access to any information pro3 vided by the applicant pursuant to a request under sub4 section (a) in connection with such application. 

5 ‘‘(d) FORM AND MANNER OF INFORMATION.—

6 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Each depository institution 

7 shall compile and maintain, in accordance with regu8 lations of the Board, a record of the information 

9 provided by any loan applicant pursuant to a request 

10 under subsection (a). 

11 ‘‘(2) ITEMIZED.—Information compiled and 

12 maintained under paragraph (1) shall also be 

13 itemized in order to clearly and conspicuously dis14 close the following: 

15 ‘‘(A) The number of the application and 

16 the date the application was received. 

17 ‘‘(B) The type and purpose of the loan or 

18 other credit being applied for. 

19 ‘‘(C) The amount of the credit or credit 

20 limit applied for and the amount of the credit 

21 transaction or the credit limit approved for such 

22 applicant. 

23 ‘‘(D) The type of action taken with respect 

24 to such application and the date of such action. 
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1 ‘‘(E) The census tract in which is located 

2 the principal place of business of the small busi3 ness loan applicant. 

4 ‘‘(F) The gross annual revenue of the busi5 ness in the last fiscal year of the small business 

6 loan applicant preceding the date of the appli7 cation. 

8 ‘‘(3) NO PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMA9 TION.—In compiling and maintaining any record of 

10 information under this section, a depository institu11 tion may not include in such record the name, spe12 cific address (other than the census tract required 

13 under paragraph (1)(E)), telephone number, elec14 tronic mail address, and any other personally identi15 fiable information concerning any individual who is, 

16 or is connected with, the small business loan appli17 cant. 

18 ‘‘(e) AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION.—

19 ‘‘(1) SUBMISSION TO AGENCIES.—The data re20 quired to be compiled and maintained under this 

21 section by any depository institution shall be sub22 mitted annually to the agency to whom the enforce23 ment of the requirements of this title are committed 

24 under section 704.
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1 ‘‘(2) AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION.—Infor2 mation compiled and maintained under this section 

3 shall be retained for not less than 3 years after the 

4 date of preparation and shall be made available to 

5 the public, upon request, in the form required under 

6 regulations prescribed by the Board. 

7 ‘‘(f) EXEMPTION FOR SMALL INSTITUTIONS.—

8 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—This section shall not apply 

9 to any depository institution the total assets of 

10 which are equal to or less than the exemption 

11 amount as of the end of the last full fiscal year of 

12 the depository institution preceding the date of the 

13 small business loan application. 

14 ‘‘(2) EXEMPTION AMOUNT.—For purposes of 

15 paragraph (1), the exemption amount is the amount 

16 determined under subsection (a) of section 309 of 

17 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act of 1975 (taking into 

18 account the adjustments required under subsection 

19 (b) of such section). 

20 ‘‘(g) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section, the 

21 following definitions shall apply: 

22 ‘‘(1) DEPOSITORY INSTITUTION.—The term ‘de23 pository institution’—
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1 ‘‘(A) has the meaning given the term in 

2 section 3 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act; 

3 and 

4 ‘‘(B) includes any credit union. 

5 ‘‘(2) MINORITY-OWNED BUSINESS.—The term 

6 ‘minority-owned business’ means a business—

7 ‘‘(A) more than 50 percent of the owner8 ship or control of which is held by 1 or more 

9 minority individuals; and 

10 ‘‘(B) more than 50 percent of the net prof11 it or loss of which accrues to 1 or more minor12 ity individuals. 

13 ‘‘(3) WOMEN-OWNED BUSINESS.—The term 

14 ‘women-owned business’ means a business—

15 ‘‘(A) more than 50 percent of the owner16 ship or control of which is held by 1 or more 

17 women; and 

18 ‘‘(B) more than 50 percent of the net prof19 it or loss of which accrues to 1 or more women. 

20 ‘‘(4) MINORITY.—The term ‘minority’ has the 

21 meaning given to such term by section 1204(c)(3) of 

22 the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and En23 forcement Act of 1989. 

24 ‘‘(5) SMALL BUSINESS LOAN.—The term ‘small 

25 business loan’ includes any loan described or defined 
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1 as a small business loan under any of the following 

2 provisions of title 12 of the Code of Federal Regula3 tions (as in effect on the date of the enactment of 

4 the Access and Openness in Small Business Lending 

5 Act of 2003): 

6 ‘‘(A) Section 25.12(u) of subpart A of part 

7 25. 

8 ‘‘(B) Section 228.12(u) of part 228. 

9 ‘‘(C) Section 345.12(u) of part 345. 

10 ‘‘(D) Section 563e.12(t) of part 563e.’’. 

11 (b) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—

12 Section 701(b) of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (15 

13 U.S.C. 1691(b)) is amended—

14 (1) by striking ‘‘or’’ after the semicolon at the 

15 end of paragraph (3); 

16 (2) in paragraph (4), by striking the period at 

17 the end and inserting ‘‘; or’’; and 

18 (3) by inserting after paragraph (4), the fol19 lowing new paragraph: 

20 ‘‘(5) to make an inquiry under section 704B in 

21 accordance with the requirements of such section.’’. 

22 (c) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 

23 for title VII of the Consumer Credit Protection Act is 

24 amended by inserting after the item relating to section 

25 704A the following new item:

‘‘704B. Small business loan data collection.’’.
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1 (d) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This section and the amend2 ments made by this section shall take effect at the end 

3 of the 6-month period beginning on the date of the enact4 ment of this Act.

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