An Even Deeper Dive into the CFPB’s Final Dodd-Frank Section 1071 Rule on Small Business Data Collection

The CFPB’s final rule implementing Section 1071 requires financial institutions to collect and report certain data in connection with credit applications made by small businesses, including women-, minority- or LGBTQI+-owned small businesses. In this episode, we respond to questions received from attendees of our April 2023 attendance-breaking webinar about the final rule. The issues our responses address include: what is a “covered transaction” and distinguishing business/consumer purpose transactions; determining the applicable compliance date, applying the “grace period,” and pre-compliance date data collection; which originations must be reported, which are excluded, who has reporting obligations in multiple party transactions such as indirect auto loans, and identifying who is a small business; reliance on broker-collected data and data collection when small business status is uncertain; complying with data segregation and “firewall” requirements; reporting issues for securities-backed loans; CFPB identification/treatment of underperforming originators; and data to be publicly disclosed and CFPB approach to data analysis. We also discuss the preliminary injunction issued by a Texas federal court staying the rule’s compliance dates for the plaintiffs only and how other entities subject to the rule have reacted. Alan Kaplinsky, Senior Counsel in Ballard Spahr’s Consumer Financial Services Group, leads the discussion joined by John Culhane and Richard Andreano, partners in the Group, and Loran Kilson and Kaley Schafer, associates in the Group.