A new report finds that minority-owned businesses have a more difficult time getting credit from lenders than companies with white owners.
The report from the Federal Reserve Banks of Cleveland and Atlanta suggests that black business owners face the largest credit gap of minority groups in the study.
Black owners were twice as likely to report having difficulties getting funds for business expansion. They were also approved 20 percent less often for lines of credit than their white counterparts.
Brett Barkley is a research analyst with the Cleveland Fed. He says the findings don’t necessarily point to discriminatory lending, but he doesn’t rule that out.
"We see this as an important topic to ensure that discrimination is not happening, so we intend to further investigate why differences are showing up in the data. First, we are currently and plan to continue to share this report broadly across a variety of stakeholders," Barkley said.
The report used data from the 2016 Small Business Credit Survey.
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