Canada’s civil rights and indigenous groups want the nation’s banks to disclose data related to race, gender, income, and neighbourhoods to ensure more equitable access to credit and loans.
Organisations representing racial minority and Indigenous business owners have called on the government to intervene.
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Nadine Spencer, president of Black Business and Professional Association, says Black business owners grapple with microaggressions, unconscious bias and discrimination in banking, and both tracking and releasing this data would help hold banks accountable.
“In order for us to move along, we have to look at the data, look at the gaps and address the issues,” she said.
Emulating the northern neighbour
Banks in the United States have had to keep track of applicants for business loans by race, gender, income, and neighbourhood for more than 40 years through their obligations under the Community Reinvestment Act.
Designed as a way to encourage banks to better serve lower-income neighbourhoods and racialized communities, it involves the US Federal Reserve and other banking regulators evaluating their performance on this front, with ratings published in an online database.
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By GlobalDataPutting an end to lending discrimination
Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch, said the federal government should require something similar of banks in Canada as a way to fight systemic racism.
“Four of our six big Canadian banks own U.S. banks and have, for decades, followed the U.S. law in the U.S. but they have not done anything up here to track and disclose discrimination,” said Conacher.
He was referring to Bank of Montreal, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Royal Bank of Canada and Toronto-Dominion Bank, which all own U.S.-based operations.
