8212020EQ0014_SOW_FINAL.pdf

SBAHQ-18-Q-00##

Compiling, Analyzing, and Reporting Data on Small Business Lending, 2018

Statement of Work

The U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy examines the role and status of small business in the economy and independently represents the views of small business to federal agencies, Congress, and the President. It is the source for small business statistics presented in user-friendly formats and it funds research into small business issues. For more information on the Office of Advocacy, including past research projects, visit http://www.sba.gov/advocacy/847.

Type of contract: The government anticipates awarding a firm-fixed price type award Location of work: To be completed by the contractor at the contractor’s facility Anticipated period of performance: Base Period 12 months from the date of award with two

(2) 12 month option periods.

Clearance required: None

1 Purpose

The purpose of this data project is to compile, summarize, analyze, and provide data on small business lending from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Call Report (FDIC), Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), and Bank Holding Corporations (BHC) databases. The contractor will provide the underlying data that Advocacy will use to analyze, write, and produce its annual report, Small Business Lending in the United States.

2 Background

The Office of Advocacy is responsible for examining the contributions and challenges of small businesses in the U.S. economy. Advocacy is constantly looking for answers to small business questions and underwrites and supports research related to the role of entrepreneurship in the economy and the examination of various issues of relevance to small business owners. To this end the Office of Advocacy seeks to have data on small business lending prepared to increase the base of knowledge about access to capital for small businesses.

Availability of credit is one of the most essential keys to small business survival and growth.

Previous research shows that the most important institutional supplier of credit to small firms is the banking sector.1 Thus, critical to the health and growth of a small business is the knowledge of how institutional depository lenders (commercial banks and savings institutions) are meeting small firm credit needs, and discovering which banks are investing in small businesses.

In the last few years, total small business lending (nonfarm, nonresidential commercial loans of less than $1 million or less) by depository lending institutions has increased by 5.8 percent from

1 Survey of Small Business Finances http://www.sba.gov/advocacy/847

June 2013 to June 2017.2 All the same, depository lending institutions over the decade have consistently held smaller portions of small business loans in their banks’ portfolios, which have led to a decline in the small business market share.3

3 Scope

3.1 Overview

a. Any additional terms must be submitted with the proposal. No additional terms or agreements will be considered following award.

b. The research contract will incorporate by reference the contractor’s complete research proposal, the complete Statement of Work (SOW), and additional documents.

c. This is a nonpersonal services contract to provide services as detailed herein and in the contractor’s complete research proposal.

d. The contractor shall provide all personnel, equipment, supplies, facilities, transportation, tools, materials, supervision, and other items and non-personal services necessary to perform this service as defined in this SOW. The contractor shall perform to the standards identified in this contract.

3.2 Proposal Expectations

This solicitation is for compiling and aggregating data from existing databases, and providing digestible summary tables. Preference will be given to proposals that demonstrate experience and expertise with the listed databases.

3.3 Data Sources

Tabulations generated by the contractor should come from the FDIC Call Report, CRA, and BHC databases. Other data sources such as the FFIEC’s National Information Center will be used to account for mergers and acquisitions. Small business loans are defined by loan size in the data.

The data project will provide the following data:

• Provide combined aggregated banking data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Call Report, Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), and bank holding corporation (BHC)

• Summarize tables and generate ranking based on a number of criteria

• Supply the full data and tables for the current available year for CRA and Call report

• Examine the loan volume (dollar amount and number) supplied by lending institutions

2 Total small business loans includes commercial industrial loans and non-farm, nonresidential loans https://www.fdic.gov/bank/analytical/qbp/timeseries/small-business-farm-loans.xls 3 https://philadelphiafed.org/-/media/research-and-data/publications/working-papers/2016/wp16- 08.pdf

3.4 Components of Final Product

The final product will consist of several tabulations:

a. Project 1 will be a complete dataset from the Call Report, which will produce a variety of updated summary tables on the value, number and small business outstanding loans by type, loan size, and bank size, as well as various ratios, shares and comparison tables.

b. Project 2 will provide a complete dataset from the CRA. Project 2 will include tables and analysis that will examine small business lending trends among minority-owned banks in low to moderate-income (LMI) areas, in addition to aggregates for all CRA non-minority LMI tables. Both the Call and CRA databases will be used to examine small business lending trends including minority-owned banks. Data for small business lending to minority businesses using CRA for 2008 & 2009 and current year by state will be generated.

c. Tables from the datasets will include, but not be limited to the tables listed below:

d. Lending by Large Lending Institutions Based on Call Report Data and CRA for 3 loan size categories

1. Top lenders by state and territory based on the Call Report for 3 loan size categories based on criteria

2. Top lenders by state and territory based on the CRA by 3 loan size categories based on loan thresholds

3. Aggregate number and amount for loans per employee, number of reporting instructions by state, territory and bank size

4. Aggregate number and amount of small business lending to minority businesses by state 2008, 2009 and current

5. Full data set for both Call Report and CRA

3.5 Task Components

The contract will be divided into three tasks:

Task A, to be completed within 12 months of initial award:

The Contractor will complete the work outlined in Section 3.4 Components of Final Product for data reference year 2018.

Task B (if exercised), to be completed within 12 months of exercise of the option (24 months of initial award):

The Contractor will complete the work outlined in Section 3.4 Components of Final Product for data reference year 2019.

Task C (if exercised), to be completed with 12 months of exercise of the option (36 months of initial award):

The Contractor will complete the work outlined in Section 3.4 Components of Final Product for data reference year 2020.

4 Deliverables

4.1 Final Deliverable Schedule

The following is a general set of deliverables and deadlines for the delivery of those deliverables.

More specific deliverables and a more specific deliverable schedule shall be finalized following the award of the contract and shall be mutually agreed upon by the Contractor, Contracting Officer, and Contracting Officer Representative at the kick-off meeting for the contract. The deliverables and deliverable schedule shall be based on the milestones identified in this section, the accepted proposal, and the specific period of performance of the contract upon award, including specific due dates within the contract term. The final deliverable schedule shall be formally amended to the contract through a modification.

4.2 Progress of Deliverables

Deliverables must show significant progress relative to each previous deliverable and must be consistent with all parts of section 5 of the Statement of Work, Performance Requirements.

SBA’s Office of Advocacy will not cover the costs associated with correcting rejected deliverables.

4.3 Acceptance of Deliverables

The Contracting Officer Representative (COR) shall review submitted deliverables over a reasonable amount of time and shall make an express determination of whether to accept or reject the deliverable.

Deliverable Due Date Format For

Written Submissions

Transition Method

Transmitted to Whom

Post Award Conference – discuss expectations, procedures/invoicing, and deliverables milestones

10 business days after award

N/A -- Phone Conference N/A CO and COR

Monthly progress reports

3rd business day of the month following initial award and each month thereafter

Microsoft Word document

Via Email COR

Discussions on reports/submittals

As scheduled by request of the COR (possible bi-weekly calls)

N/A -- Phone Conference N/A COR/Vendor

Detailed Contract Deliverables Milestones for the Task A Base Period (Option Periods for Task B and C (if exercised) will follow the same schedule)

Preliminary data development (Call Report)

Months 1-3 of performance period

Microsoft Excel, Word documents and/or statistical results (no Adobe Acrobat PDF files or locked files)

Via Email COR

• Develop necessary program coding

Within first month of performance period

Statistical software COR

• Call Report data – generate preliminary tables

• Produce summary tables

• Call/email COR – explaining any irregularities or top line findings

Months 2-3 of performance period

Microsoft Excel, Word documents and/or statistical results (no Adobe Acrobat PDF files or locked files)

Via Email COR

• Call Report data – generate all state tables

Month 3 of performance period

Microsoft Excel, statistical results (no Adobe Acrobat PDF files or locked files)

Via Email COR

Preliminary data (CRA)

Months 4-6 of performance period

Microsoft Excel, documents and formatted in accordance with specifications (no Adobe Acrobat PDF files or locked files)

Via Email COR

• Tweak program codes

• CRA data – generate preliminary tables

• Produce summary tables

Within month 4 of performance period

Statistical software Via Email COR

• CRA data – generate all state tables

Month 5 of performance period

Microsoft Excel, Word and/or statistical results (no Adobe Acrobat PDF files or locked files)

5 Performance Requirements

5.1 General Requirements

a. The methodology and hypotheses put forth in the proposal will clearly show how the research will be conducted, are binding upon award, and are expected to be reflected in the final report.

b. All research team members listed in the proposal, including but not limited to subject matter and technical experts, will actively contribute through the performance of these services.

c. The resulting final submission will fully document the analysis.

• Call Report data – rework & pass back

• CRA data – rework & pass back

Months 6 of contract term

Microsoft Excel, and/or statistical results (no Adobe Acrobat PDF files or locked files)

Via Email COR

• Call Report and CRA data for minority depository institutions

Month 7-12 of performance period

Microsoft Excel (no Adobe Acrobat PDF files or locked files)

Via Email COR

• Data - generate tables for minority lenders using both data sets (Rework, resubmission of proposed final review tables)

Month 7-8 of performance period

Microsoft Excel, (no Adobe Acrobat PDF files or locked files)

Via Email COR

• Data Review – rework & pass back of Call Report, and CRA tables

Month 9-10 of performance period

Month 9-10 of contract term

Via Email COR

• Review data & finalize Month 11 of performance period

Month 9-10 of contract term

Via Email COR

Final Data Submission-All data products

Month 12 of performance period

Microsoft Excel (no Adobe Acrobat PDF files or locked files)

d. Deliverables as listed in the final deliverable schedule will reflect reasonable progress toward the final product and should be submitted according to final product formatting requirements, meaning all deliverables should be thoroughly proofread and edited, written clearly and concisely and free of grammatical and typographical errors.

e. For other details on the final product, see section 4 of the Statement of Work on deliverables and section 5.2 of the Statement of Work on additional requirements.

5.2 Additional Requirements

Contractors must adhere to the following when submitting draft and final deliverables, with the draft and final versions completed by the listed deadlines:

5.2.1 Adherence to Contract Terms

All submissions will be presented by the prescribed deadlines; presented under the prescribed methodology; in the prescribed format to the contracting officer’s representative (COR).

Documents shall be clearly annotated and/or identified as either a draft or a final document.

5.2.2 Deliverables

The contractor will provide the Office of Advocacy with an electronic version of the final deliverable within the contract term. All of the deliverables listed in the deliverables chart of this SOW and any subsequent modifications to the contract, including all drafts identified as deliverables, shall be created in accordance with the terms and conditions detailed in this document. The research is expected to progress along the timeline and benchmarks as noted in the Deliverables section and as incorporated into the contract.

5.2.3 Contract Team

a. Key Personnel Key personnel shall have the technical skills requisite to perform the project. This requires a minimum of advanced technical training in applied economic and econometric analysis and demonstrated experience as subject matter experts. For example, a Ph.D. in Economics or survey methodology would be considered acceptable. Offerors shall submit resumes that demonstrate these minimum qualifications for key personnel, such as project leads.

b. Changes in Contract Team Contractors must seek prior written approval from the contracting officer and COR before any changes are implemented among the key personnel and other staff listed in the proposal.

Individuals that the contractor proposes to use as replacements for those listed in the proposal shall satisfy the minimum qualification requirements contained in the solicitation and the contractor must provide resumes for each proposed replacement as part of its request for prior written approval.

5.2.4 Paperwork Reduction Act Requirements

When surveys or new information collections are necessary, contractors must meet the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) where applicable. In order to do so, the contractor will need to anticipate within the performance term the required public notice and OMB review for information collections under the PRA. The creation of a new information collection will require the contractor to develop survey procedures; identify appropriate respondents; provide clarification of the collection process; provide realistic estimates of the response rates; and work to develop an appropriate survey instrument (see, https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/information-regulatory-affairs/federal-collection-information/).

It is the contractor’s responsibility to prepare any materials necessary to obtain PRA clearances associated with the work to be performed.

5.2.5 Data Quality and Transparency Requirements

All research and data projects are subject to the Office of Management and Budget Guidelines for Ensuring and Maximizing the Quality, Objectivity, Utility, and Integrity of Information Disseminated by Federal Agencies (see, https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2002-02-22/pdf/R2- 59.pdf).

Per these guidelines, data source disclosure and robustness checks will be required for any research or data project, including all data coding necessary to replicate findings and datasets derived through coding and query and used in support of analysis, unless otherwise limited by special access agreements. Peer review may range from internal Advocacy staff review to that of external reviewers in relevant fields such as academics or technical experts. Feedback from this process will be incorporated into subsequent drafts before the report can be finalized for release.

5.2.6 Data Rights

Rights in Data under FAR §§ 52.227-14 (alternates 2 and 5), 52.22715, and 52.227-16 shall apply.

5.2.7 Editing and Proofreading Requirements

The documented submissions related to the post award service, including the final report and all intervening deliverables, must be thoroughly edited and of high professional quality before submission to the COR. These high professional quality drafts and reports shall include professional language, presentation, and citations commensurate with published research in academic journals in the relevant subject matter field and shall be free of typographical and grammatical errors.

5.2.8 Style Requirements

All tables and figures must have a source specified on the page; references, footnotes and bibliographies shall be formatted consistent with a major style guide; and all pages shall have page numbers, including tables and figures.

5.2.9 ADA Section 508 Requirements

All government agency electronic and information technology (EIT) is required to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). Section 508 of the ADA’s 1998 amendments requires the electronic documents posted by Federal agencies to be accessible to employees and members of the public with disabilities to the extent that it does not pose an "undue burden." To comply with this mandate, the final report must be formatted in accordance with Section 508 requirements. The according to the Office of Advocacy will provide guidance to achieve 508 compatibility at the time of award; however, it is ultimately the contractor’s responsibility to provide all deliverables in accordance with the legal requirements for section 508 compliance. Per the guidelines, written descriptions of all figures and charts in the final report must be provided in a separate document.

5.2.10 Formatting Requirements

Reports must be double-spaced. The format of the electronic version must be a native word processing software format. An Acrobat (PDF) file is not acceptable. All tables, graphics, and charts must be supplied in an editable software format. The font size used in the document will be no smaller than 12 point for manuscript text; 10 point for tables, graphics and charts; and 9 point for footnotes.

5.2.11 Disclaimer

The Office of Advocacy will prepare a cover page carrying the following disclaimer, "The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations found in this study are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Office of Advocacy, the United States Small Business Administration, or the United States Government."

5.2.12 Future Publication and Attribution

Prior to the Office of Advocacy’s release, the Contractor shall not use, release, distribute copies to the public, or publish any data produced in the performance of this contract without prior written permission of the Office of Advocacy. The Office of Advocacy encourages contractors to publish their findings in professional journals, if possible, but they can do so only after completing the contract, and, only if prior to the Office of Advocacy’s release, the Contractor has received written permission of the Office of Advocacy. Prior to publication, the Contractor must notify the Contracting Officer Representative in writing regarding attribution to the Office of Advocacy. Attribution must cite the SBA contract number under which the research was performed.