Mandatory lending disclosure is a feature of the US Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) of 1977, banks must by disclose annually where and who they lend to. The data is broken down by geography, ethnicity, and gender and cross referenced by what the lenders charge on average to each of these communities, all of which is publicly available. This data has been used to identify communities and geographies that have limited access to financial services, and helped community organisations and leaders work with Banks and Government to create solutions for them.
Under the CRA these partnerships have levered over $2trillion in safe and sound lending to support to communities in creating jobs, owning homes, building financial skills and accessing affordable credit. It has been an agent for positive change and given communities the power information to make a measurable difference.
In the UK the Social Investment Taskforce, commissioned by Gordon Brown, recommended that Banks in the UK disclose their lending data in 2000. This call was repeated in 2005. To date no Bank has regularly produced this data of all their portfolio.
