Strengthening bipartisan legislation to expand small business access to capital

The challenge:

Supporting the growth and success of Small and Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs) is a national priority, essential for economic growth, innovation, and community resiliency. Yet, access to capital remains a major barrier—most new businesses rely on personal savings or help from friends and family, making it much harder for those without these resources to launch and grow. JPMorganChase Institute research shows only a fraction of small businesses reach $1M in revenue in the first five years—a key milestone for long-term survival, job creation, and community impact.

At the same time, more support is needed for business owners as they consider retiring or transitioning ownership of their business. Over the next decade, 75% of all business owners hope to exit their business. In fact, 12 million businesses—totaling $10 trillion in assets—are expected to change hands over the next 10-15 years. Facilitating successful ownership transitions is essential for preserving wealth, retaining jobs, and sustaining local economies. This need is especially urgent in strategic industries, where more than half of firms identified as critical by the Departments of Commerce and Defense have owners aged 55 or older—making it vital for both local economic stability and national security that these businesses have access to the capital and resources needed to support their transitions to new ownership.

The opportunity:

As the nation’s leading small business bank, JPMorganChase understands that access to capital is a critical aspect of survival - and opportunity - at every stage of business, from supporting startup needs to passing on a legacy.

That is why small businesses are at the heart of the bank’s recently launched American Dream Initiative, a multi-year effort to expand economic opportunity in communities across the United States. The effort begins with a new goal of powering 10 million small businesses over the next several years, up from 7 million the bank serves today. We intend to expand access to capital, scale our Coaching for Impact program, hire more small business bankers, double the number of local senior business consultants, and advance practical, pro-growth policies that help small businesses thrive.

At a moment of shared interest in strengthening the small business ecosystem, several bipartisan policy proposals before Congress present meaningful opportunities to expand access to capital and support long-term small business growth. Most recently, the Small Business Innovation and Economic Security Act (S.3971), signed into law on April 13, reauthorizes the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs for five years—programs widely recognized as “America’s Seed Fund” and critical stimulants of innovation helping to support technology development across defense, energy, genetics, robotics, space, information technology, and health—and contributing to more than 1.5 million jobs since the programs’ inception. Complementing this effort, the Investing in All of America Act (S. 3341/H.R. 2066), signed into law on May 19, seeks to direct additional capital to small businesses in rural, low-income, and critical technology sectors by strengthening the Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) program, with a focus on improving financial stability while maintaining support for underserved markets. JPMorganChase’s SBIC investments through our Impact Finance team support funds that focus on businesses in low to moderate income areas or SBA HubZones, filling a capital access gap for businesses in the “missing middle”.

More can be done. Right now, there are several bipartisan, commonsense bills before the 119th Congress that can further unlock capital, support innovation and strengthen resilience for small businesses nationwide—at every stage of growth and within critical industries—helping to ensure America’s continued prosperity and economic resilience. JPMorganChase looks forward to continuing to work with policymakers to advance additional policy solutions that help bolster the entire small business ecosystem.

Scaling access to capital for new and existing small businesses

Incentivizing New Ventures and Economic Strength Through Capital Formation (INVEST) Act of 2025 (H.R. 3383)

• What it does: The INVEST Act of 2025, passed by the House of Representatives by a strong bipartisan vote of 301 to 123 in December 2025, is a comprehensive legislative package aimed at expanding access to capital for small businesses, increasing investment opportunities for a broader range of investors, and strengthening public markets. Key provisions within the bill would:
  • Expand and diversify funding options for small businesses, especially in rural areas, by strengthening Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) small business advocacy functions.
  • Increase practical access to crowdfunding and enabling venture capital funds to serve more investors and deploy more capital.
  • Reduce compliance friction and improve regulatory responsiveness by creating dedicated small-business offices across SEC divisions, updating “small entity” definitions to better reflect today’s firms, requiring small-business impact consideration in rulemaking, and streamlining the small-business advocate’s ability to provide guidance and advance capital-formation priorities.
• Why it matters: The INVEST Act would make raising growth capital easier and less costly across multiple channels—crowdfunding, venture funds, and private offerings—by updating thresholds, expanding eligible fund sizes/investor limits, and modernizing SEC rules that can unintentionally constrain early-stage fundraising. It also aims to widen the pool of potential investors, which can increase demand for small business and startup financing. By streamlining steps on the path to going public the bill seeks to improve the “funding ladder” from private to public—giving high-growth small businesses more credible, reachable scaling and transition options, which can in turn make earlier fundraising more feasible.

Access to Fair Financing for Opportunity and Resilient Development (AFFORD) Act (S. 3940)

• What it does: The AFFORD Act, introduced with 30 bipartisan Senate co-sponsors, reflects broad bipartisan support for further modernizing the Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) tools and amplifying their impact in communities across the country. Specifically, the AFFORD act would:
  • Strengthen CDFI financing channels and accountability.
  • Enhance transparency and oversight of Treasury’s CDFI Fund to ensure programs are accountable and responsive to community needs.
  • Extend and improve the CDFI Bond Guarantee Program so smaller CDFIs can access long‑term, below‑market capital.
  • Reauthorize the liquidity enhancement program to expand lending capacity in underserved markets.
• Why it matters: The AFFORD Act can increase the capacity and reach of CDFIs—often a key source of credit and technical support for small firms that don’t fit traditional bank underwriting, especially in rural, tribal, and other underserved communities. Extending and enhancing the CDFI Bond Guarantee Program to enable participation by smaller CDFIs and reauthorizing liquidity enhancement tools can help CDFIs raise and recycle more capital—translating into more small business lending and investment at the local level.
  • JPMorganChase-supported research found that CDFI loans generally improve outcomes for both mircoloan and small business borrowers, increasing credit scores and business trade balances, and decreasing credit card utilization. JPMorganChase recognizes the critical role CDFIs play in communities across the country. The firm has invested nearly $1.7 billion in traditional financing, depository products, resources and expertise as well as philanthropic capital, including grants and flexible credit products over the last 5 years, to help CDFIs lend to small businesses and fund local community development projects.

Prioritizing small business innovation and American competitiveness

American Ownership and Resilience Act (AORA) (H.R. 3248/S. 1645)

• What it does: The bipartisan AORA Act, introduced in May 2025 in both the Senate and House, would invest significant capital to promote and finance transitions to employee ownership through Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) and worker-owned cooperatives—paving the way for a proven business succession solution to be more readily available to businesses and their employees.
  • Establishes a zero-subsidy program operated by the Department of Commerce to provide loan guarantees to support licensed private investment funds devoted to expanding employee ownership through ESOPs and worker cooperatives.
  • The program would provide up to $5 billion annually in government-backed leverage to licenses ownership investment companies (OICs), which must invest exclusively in businesses transitioning to employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) or eligible worker-owned cooperatives.
• Why it matters: Access to capital is not only imperative at the early and mid-stages of the small business lifecycle; it is an important component to enable successful business ownership transitions. American small business owners are getting older as part of the broader “Silver Tsunami” shift that will see unprecedented wealth transfers over the coming decade. Nearly 3 million small businesses have owners over 55 years old; data show only 30% of family businesses survive the transition from first to second generation ownership and only 20% sell. These trends are even more pronounced in critical and strategic industries as defined by the government, where over half (52%) of firms defined as critical by the DOC and the DoD have an owner that is aged 55 or older.
  • Empowering small businesses with the resources needed to design and implement concrete succession plans is critical for economic stability in every community, innovation in key industries, and American competitiveness broadly. Employee ownership strategies—including Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs)—can strengthen and diversify businesses, increase business resilience and continuity and create wealth-building opportunities, particularly for small and mid-size businesses. Learn more.

Expand investments in small businesses through SBICs

Investing in Main Street Act of 2025 (S. 2223/H.R. 754)

• What it does: Passed by the House in February under suspension of the rule, the Investing in Main Street Act raises the cap on certain banking entities’ investments in SBICs from 5% to 15% of capital and surplus, expanding SBIC capacity to finance growing businesses.
• Why it matters: More private capital into SBICs can increase financing for local SMBs without new federal outlays. This change can unlock additional private capital for small and medium sized businesses, fostering job creation, innovation and economic growth nationwide.

We encourage policymakers to continue supporting these bills to strengthen American small business innovation, competitiveness, and economic security. We look forward to working collaboratively with Congress, the Administration and stakeholders to advance these priorities and ensure effective implementation.

Our commitment:

JPMorganChase is proud to help entrepreneurs access capital, connections, and other critical resources needed to start, grow, and thrive. Over the next several years, we intend to power 10 million small businesses by providing further access to capital alongside coaching, advice, training and tools that help entrepreneurs overcome obstacles and grow, including:

• Increasing access to capital for businesses at every stage: Deploying increased capital directly to customers and through partners, including Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) and mission-driven lenders, supporting federal programs such as Small Business Administration (SBA) Small Business Investment Companies (SBIC), State Small Business Credit Initiatives (SSBCI) and microloans, and participating in SBA’s 7a and 504 programs. As part of the American Dream Initiative, JPMorganChase intends to provide nearly $80 billion in lending to small businesses over the next 10 years, including direct lending to customers as well as through community and mission-driven lending partners, helping more entrepreneurs access the funding they need to grow and scale their businesses.
• Advancing policies that support entrepreneurship and job creation: Championing policies such as the Small Business Administration’s Made in America Manufacturing Initiative to eliminate $100 billion in red tape costs and increase loan sizes for small businesses.
  • JPMorganChase PolicyCenter: Strengthening small business growth: Supporting the Made in America Manufacturing Finance Act
  • JPMorganChase PolicyCenter: Federal Opportunities to Strengthen Small Business Vitality and Resiliency
  • JPMorganChase & Bipartisan Policy Center Letter to SBA Administrator Loeffler

We will continue working with policymakers and partners to advance practical, pro‑growth solutions that strengthen small businesses, communities, and the broader economy.