Canadian Lenders Association Announces Creation of Covid-19 Working Group

The Canadian Lenders Association has announced its establishment of a covid-19 working group to support its members’ response against the coronavirus. The group will act as an advisory committee and resource for CLA members, while also serving as a lobbyist group to various government entities.

“We presently are in an unprecedented period in Canadian business,” CLA President Gary Schwartz said in a statement. “In the weeks and months ahead, CLA members will have an important role to play in supporting small business and in providing much needed credit to consumers across Canada. The goal of this initiative is to engage with and advocate on behalf of all stakeholders across the innovative lending ecosystem to help mitigate the disruption that covid-19 create in Canada.”

The working group will engage Canadian policy makers on key issues relating to small business lenders and small businesses. In a call, CLA Board Member and Merchant Growth Partner CEO David Gens said that “there’s a lot that governments can do to bridge businesses through this, so that once this virus is over, life resembles, as much as possible, what it looked like pre-virus … I don’t think we have seen enough yet in terms of the government response as it relates specifically to mom and pop small businesses … And I think that those businesses, those local storefronts really do make up the fabric of communities.”

Brendan Garrett was a Reporter at deBanked.