# Plain Language Summary: LGBTQI Business Equal Credit Enforcement and Investment Act

This bill requires banks and lenders to start collecting and reporting data about loans they give to LGBTQI-owned businesses. Right now, when the federal government collects information about small business loans, they track data for minority-owned and women-owned businesses, but there's no systematic way to see how many loans go to LGBTQI entrepreneurs or what terms they receive. This bill fills that gap by adding LGBTQI-owned businesses to the list of categories that lenders must report on, including information about the sexual orientation, gender identity, and intersex status of business owners.

The practical effect is that regulators and researchers will finally be able to see whether LGBTQI business owners face discrimination when applying for loans, just as they can currently track lending patterns for other groups. If a bank is consistently denying loans to LGBTQI entrepreneurs or offering them worse terms than other borrowers, this data would make that pattern visible. The bill defines an LGBTQI-owned business as one where more than half the ownership and more than half the profits belong to people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or intersex.

For most people, this bill won't directly change anything about how they get loans or do business. However, it could help LGBTQI entrepreneurs by creating transparency around lending practices and potentially exposing discrimination. It also gives policymakers and advocacy groups concrete information to push for fairer lending practices. Banks will need to adjust their data collection systems to track this information, though the reporting requirements are similar to systems already in place for other demographic groups.

LGBTQI Business Equal Credit Enforcement and Investment Act

Torres, Ritchie

LGBTQI Business Equal Credit Enforcement and Investment ActThis bill requires financial institutions to report certain credit application data to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for the purposes of enforcing fair lending laws. Specifically, financial institutions must report this data regarding lesbian-, gay-, bisexual-, transgender-, queer-, or intersex-owned businesses. Currently, this data is reported regarding women-owned, minority-owned, and small businesses.