Small Business Lending

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As we reported earlier this week, the CFPB’s new Acting Director and Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, has directed Bureau employees not to make any filings or appearances in litigation, other than to seek a pause in the proceedings. This directive played out almost immediately this week—including in a case before the Fifth Circuit brought by…

Mere days before Halloween, California enacted California Senate Bill 666, imposing a set of restrictions on the fees that commercial financers may charge their small business customers. Signed by the governor on October 13, the legislation marks an escalation of the state’s regulation of commercial financing. What began as a disclosure-based regime with California’s…

On September 25, 2023, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau began its most substantial Fair Credit Reporting Act rulemaking yet with an outline of proposed changes to Regulation V, which implements FCRA, ahead of the Bureau’s Small Business Advisory Review Panel. The proposals under consideration could have a substantial impact on the data brokerage industry, if…

Providers of commercial financing should take note that Georgia has become the fifth US state to enact small business financing disclosure requirements since California started the trend in 2018. Georgia Senate Bill 90 was signed by Governor Brian Kemp on May 1, 2023, and takes effect January 1, 2024. The Georgia law applies to transactions of…

On March 30, 2023, the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) published its long-awaited final rule requiring lenders to collect and report data about their small business lending activities. The final rule implements Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act, which was designed to effectuate fair lending laws with respect to women-owned, minority-owned and small businesses. The final rule was issued just one day before a court-mandated deadline for finalization, and more than 10 years after the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Act.

Continue Reading CFPB Finalizes Long-Awaited Small Business Data Collection Rule

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…

With President Joe Biden’s inauguration as the Nation’s 46th President, change is coming to Washington. And that change will be felt quickly and acutely at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). At President Biden’s request, CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger submitted her resignation on Wednesday, clearing the way for the President to appoint current FTC Commissioner and former CFPB official Rohit Chopra as the next Director of the agency. Given the CFPB’s single Director structure, the new Director will have significant opportunities to shape the direction of the CFPB over the next four years. Below we address what we can expect to see from CFPB under the new administration.
Continue Reading A New Day Dawns at the CFPB

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

On October 17, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (“BCFP” or “Bureau”) issued its Fall  2018 regulatory agenda.  Notable highlights include:

  • Payday Lending Rule Amendments. In January 2018, the Bureau announced that it would engage in rulemaking to reconsider its Payday Lending Rule released in October 2017.  According to the Bureau’s Fall 2018 agenda, the Bureau expects to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking by January 2019 that will address both the merits and the compliance date (currently August 2019) of the rule.
  • Debt Collection Rule Coming. The Bureau expects to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking addressing debt collection-related communication practices and consumer disclosures by March 2019.  The Bureau explained that debt collection remains a top source of the complaints it receives and both industry and consumer groups have encouraged the Bureau to modernize Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”) requirements through rulemaking.  The Bureau did not specify whether its proposed rulemaking would be limited to third-party collectors subject to the FDCPA, but its reference to FDCPA-requirements suggests that is likely to be the case.
  • Small Business Lending Data Collection Rule Delayed. The Dodd-Frank Act amended the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (“ECOA”) to require financial institutions to submit certain information relating to credit applications made by women-owned, minority-owned, and small businesses to the Bureau and gave the Bureau the authority to require financial institutions to submit additional data.  In May 2017, the Bureau issued a Request for Information seeking comment on small business lending data collection.  While the BCFP’s Spring 2018 agenda listed this item as in the pre-rule stage, the Bureau has now delayed its work on the rule and reclassified it as a long-term action.  The Bureau noted that it “intends to continue certain market monitoring and research activities to facilitate resumption of the rulemaking.”
  • HMDA Data Disclosure Rule. The Bureau expects to issue guidance later this year to govern public disclosure of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (“HMDA”) data for 2018.  The Bureau also announced that it has decided to engage in notice-and-comment rulemaking to govern public disclosure of HMDA data in future years.
  • Assessment of Prior Rules – Remittances, Mortgage Servicing, QM; TRID up next. The Dodd-Frank Act requires the Bureau to conduct an assessment of each significant rule adopted by the Bureau under Federal consumer financial law within five years after the effective date of the rule.  In accordance with this requirement, the Bureau announced that it expects to complete its assessments of the Remittance Rule, the 2013 RESPA Mortgage Servicing Rule, and the Ability-to-Repay/Qualified Mortgage Rule by January 2019.  At that time, it will begin its assessment of the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure Rule (TRID).
  • Abusiveness Rule? Consistent with recent statements by Acting Director Mick Mulvaney that while unfairness and deception are well-established in the law, abusiveness is not, the Bureau stated that it is considering whether to clarify the meaning of abusiveness through rulemaking.  The Bureau under former Director Richard Cordray rejected defining abusiveness through rulemaking (although the payday rule relied, in part, on the Bureau’s abusiveness authority), preferring instead to bring abusiveness claims in enforcement proceedings to establish the contours of the prohibition.  Time will tell if the Bureau will follow through on this.

Continue Reading BCFP’s Fall 2018 Regulatory Agenda