Main Street Alliance Targets Financial Reform

The Main Street Alliance has added a new project on financial reform.

Iowa MSA has collected surveys on financial reform from over 100 small business owners across Iowa. We canvassed both existing MSA members and potential and new members. This is a national project with well over 1000 surveys collected from participating states. The information was compiled into a report that highlights each state's individual results and was released on January 28th.

Main Street Policy Pulse: Small Business Views On Financial Reform, Full report (PDF)

Main Street Policy Pulse: Small Business Views On Financial Reform, Iowa Snapshot (PDF)

Questions on the survey included asking if small businesses have experienced:

being turned down by a lender who has lent to them in the past; being turned down by a new lender
accepted a loan at a higher interest rate
seen business credit terms deteriorate
used personal savings or credit cards for expenses
lost customers or business due to the recession

We also asked if they believe enough steps have been taken to ensure that small businesses and the economy as a whole are protected from another Wall Street collapse?

Our respondents overwhelmingly believe that:

Congress should pass strong financial reforms
financial reforms are needed:
- to ensure accountability on Wall Street
- promote fair access to credit for small businesses
- prevent another collapse

They also support creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency to supervise all bank and non-bank lenders. They believe that the CFPA would help small businesses by ensuring access to credit on fair terms and making sure all lenders are playing by the same rules.