Poll: 4 in 5 Small Business Owners Support Tougher Rules for Wall Street

An Internet poll conducted by ""Lake Research Partners"":http://www.lakeresearch.com/ and released by ""Small Business Majority"":http://www.smallbusinessmajority.org/ shows entrepreneurs overwhelmingly support the ""Consumer Financial Protection Bureau"":http://www.consumerfinance.gov/ (CFPB) and its mission to regulate the financial industries.

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According to the ""poll"":http://www.smallbusinessmajority.org/small-business-research/downloads/012913-financial-reform-report.pdf, 80 percent of small business owners believe Wall Street and financial companies should face tougher rules and enforcement following the financial crisis. The remainder believe those companies have showed enough evidence of change that further regulation is unnecessary.

Additionally, a combined 66 percent of those surveyed expressed their opinion that the level of government oversight of financial companies should increase or is about right the way it is.

Most notably, 84 percent of entrepreneurs support the CFPB and ""believe it's needed to prevent predatory financial practices and ensure all financial institutions [COLUMN_BREAK]

treat small businesses and consumers fairly."" In addition, 58 percent of respondents agreed that the CFPB was needed because ""Wall Street banks and financial companies wrote their own rules and nobody was watching out for consumers and small businesses.""

""Small businesses, along with our economy, are getting stronger, but they're certainly not immune to the lingering effects of our financial meltdown,"" said John Arensmeyer, founder and CEO of Small Business Majority. ""That's why they feel strongly that Wall Street banks and other financial institutions need to be held accountable with tougher regulations. Predatory lending practices are still a problem and small businesses support the government's and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's role in fixing that.""

Sixty percent of entrepreneurs agreed that the agency's funding should remain independent so as to prevent lobbyists from launching efforts in Congress to block regulation.

""More work needs to be done to give small businesses the ability to push back against these unfair practices. A lot of small businesses don't have the power or the resources to fight against the big banks and financial companies,"" said Shaundell Newsome, President & CEO of ""Sumnu Marketing"":http://www.sumnumarketing.com/ in Las Vegas, Nevada.

""These companies' practices haven't really changed since the recession, which is why I think it's incredibly important the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was created to keep these folks accountable. However, many of the protections that individuals are seeing should be afforded to small businesses, as well.""