May 10, 2017
Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released a request for information about the small business lending market, especially women-owned and minority-owned small businesses. Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act amends the Equal Credit Opportunity Act to require financial institutions to compile, maintain, and report information concerning credit applications by small businesses. Today's request for information will likely lead to a rule for the collection and reporting of this lending data. The CFPB asks the following questions: (1) What defines a small business? (2) What financial institutions lend to small businesses and what products are offered? (3) What business lending information is used, maintained, and reported by financial institutions in connection with credit applications made by small businesses? and (4) What is the privacy impact of the public release of small business lending data?
The CFPB seeks comments from individual businesses, consumer groups, community development organizations, bank and nonbank lenders, regulators, and all other interested parties. The comment period will end 60 days after the request for information is officially published in the Federal Register.
The Bureau also released a white paper that discusses its preliminary research of the small business lending environment, with a particular focus on lending to women-owned and minority-owned small businesses.