An influential Senate committee is calling on the federal government to consider smarter regulatory approaches to help small businesses access capital, many of which CCUA has been actively advocating for.

On October 14, the Standing Senate Committee on Banking, Commerce and the Economy released a report calling for significant changes to the Canadian financial system to address structural issues that lead to financing gaps for small and medium-sized enterprises. Informing their recommendations, the committee held fifteen meetings, involving twenty-four hours of testimony from over thirty-five witnesses, including CCUA. 

The report makes fourteen recommendations, including calling for changes to federal capital requirements that would permit more credit unions to better lend to SMEs, expanding risk-sharing and loan guarantee programs, particularly for community-based lenders and in underserved markets, and ensuring that government programs should complement and support, rather than compete with, what the private sector lenders are already doing. 

To view CCUA's testimony, see here. 

The full report can be accessed here.