Small Business Lending

Small business financers and brokers active in New York must comply with New York’s Commercial Finance Disclosure Law (“CFDL”) by August 1, 2023, according to the new effective date the New York Department of Financial Services provided in final administrative rules on February 1.

In addition to the new effective date, the final rules include

After an almost two-year regulatory process, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) adopted final administrative regulations to implement the state’s 2018 commercial financing disclosure law. Most importantly, the final rules come with a long-awaited effective date: December 9, 2022. The effective date honors prior DFPI statements that a six-month window for compliance

On April 11, 2022, Virginia became the second US state to require providers of merchant cash advance (“MCA”) products to obtain a state regulatory license or registration—hot on the heels of Utah. With Governor Glenn Youngkin’s signing House Bill 1027 into law, companies providing “sales-based financing” in Virginia will now be required to provide up-front

The New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has issued “pre-proposed” rules under New York’s commercial financing disclosure law that was enacted at the end of 2020. The pre-proposed rules are 45 pages long and were posted on the NYDFS website on September 21. Comments on the pre-proposed rules are due by October 1. There will be a longer comment period once a proposed rule is published in the State Register. The NYDFS aims to finalize the rules before the law takes effect on January 1, 2022.

The pre-proposed rules give the state’s commercial financing disclosure law, colloquially known as the “NY TILA,” the formal name of the “Commercial Finance Disclosure Law (CFDL).” The pre-proposed rules also define terms and provide detailed requirements for the content and formatting of the CFDL-required disclosures. The proposed definitions borrow heavily from, but do not exactly mirror, those under the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation’s (DPFI) proposed rules to implement its own commercial financing disclosure law. The lack of uniformity between the two states’ regulations will complicate compliance for commercial financers subject to both laws. Where the NYDFS rules borrow most substantially from the California rules, the NYDFS tends to draw from the prior version of those rules, before the DFPI’s second round of modifications issued August 9, 2021. This raises the question of whether the NYDFS will incorporate California’s latest modifications when the NYDFS issues the next version of its proposed rules.
Continue Reading NYDFS Issues Pre-Proposed Rules to Implement New Commercial Financing Disclosure Law

Today the Bureau finally released its long-awaited proposed rulemaking on small business lending data collection. Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act mandated that the CFPB collect data about small business lending to facilitate enforcement of fair lending laws.

After ten years of fits and starts on this topic, the Bureau ultimately was pressured by a lawsuit filed against it to make forward progress on a proposal. As we previously reported, a court settlement last year mandated a timeline for the CFPB to take certain steps to initiate a Section 1071 small business lending data collection rulemaking. Among other steps, the settlement required the CFPB to convene a Small Business Advocacy Review panel (“Panel”) by October 15, 2020. The Panel met and provided feedback on the CFPB’s proposals under consideration and released its report in December.

The 918-page proposed rule issued today is the culmination of years of research and CFPB engagement with stakeholders.
Continue Reading CFPB Issues Proposed Small Business Lending Rule

In late December 2020, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed S.B. 5470 into law, which will impose a range of Truth in Lending Act-like disclosure requirements on providers of commercial financing in amounts of $500,000 or less. The law will have a significant impact on providers beyond traditional commercial lenders, as it broadly defines “commercial

On September 15, 2020, the CFPB published a detailed outline of proposed options it is considering to implement a rule under Section 1071 of the Dodd Frank Act. Ten years ago, Section 1071 amended the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) to require that financial institutions collect and report information concerning credit applications made by women- or minority-owned businesses and by small businesses. Although the CFPB was tasked with drafting rules to implement Section 1071, it did not take significant steps to meet that obligation until 2017, when it reported on some preliminary research, and then later in November 2019, when it held an information-gathering symposium.

As we previously noted, once Section 1071 is implemented, certain financial institutions will be required to collect information regarding the race, sex, and ethnicity of the principal owners of small businesses and women- and minority-owned businesses and submit this information to the CFPB, similar to what is currently required by the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act for mortgage loans. The CFPB’s outline released this week proposes several potential options for developing the small business lending data collection rule and is a precursor to any future proposed rulemaking. At this stage, the CFPB is seeking feedback on the direction of the rule. Feedback and comments on the scope of the rule can be sent to 2020-SBREFA-1071@cfpb.gov until December 14, 2020. The CFPB is also seeking feedback on the potential impacts on small business entities and has requested submission of such feedback by November 9, 2020.

Below, we summarize the key aspects of the Bureau’s outline and its proposals regarding the scope of the rule.
Continue Reading CFPB Finally Makes Progress on Implementing Small Business Lending Data Collection Requirements

Nevada requires nonexempt persons making unsecured or other non-real estate secured commercial or business loans, or non-real estate-secured consumer loans, to obtain a license under the state’s Installment Loan and Finance Act (the “Nevada Act”), administered by the state’s Division of Financial Institutions (the “Division”). Shortly after enactment of the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and

The Small Business Administration (SBA) released an interim final rule on the evening of April 2, 2020, outlining key provisions of the SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the provisions of the CARES Act relating to loan forgiveness. The rule is effective immediately.

Continue reading on Mayer Brown’s Retained Interest blog.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) has settled a lawsuit seeking to compel it to undertake the rulemaking required by Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act (“Section 1071”). Section 1071, 15 U.S.C. § 1691c-2, requires financial institutions to collect and maintain information about loan applications by women-owned, minority-owned and small businesses, and requires the CFPB to collect and publish this data annually. It also requires the CFPB to issue implementing regulations. The settlement sets forth a specific date by which the CFPB must begin the rulemaking process and establishes a framework for determining, along with plaintiffs or subject to court order, a final timeline for promulgation of the required rule. The settlement should result in a final rule in 2022, a dozen years after Congress first required the CFPB to act.
Continue Reading Long-Awaited Section 1071 Small Business Rulemaking Is Finally on the Horizon