Executive Letter: WBA Stands Ready to Assist Members
By Rose Oswald Poels
Since the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010, WBA has assisted members in understanding and implementing countless layers of new federal regulations — some as straight forward as creating and delivering a new one-page notice, others much more complex, including TRID, mortgage servicing rules, and QM/ATR underwriting standards (and those are only the most recent of new laws).
An area of the Dodd-Frank Act that much of the industry has been anxiously awaiting is that of Section 1071. As a reminder, Section 1071 of the Dodd Frank Act amended the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) to require that financial institutions collect and report to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) certain data regarding applications for credit for women-owned businesses, minority-owned businesses, and small businesses.
Having been in this industry for over thirty years, I will say that the forthcoming business data collection and reporting regulation is of the magnitude — both in cost and in operational impact — of what bankers experienced with the implementation of other industry-changing regulations such as the Bank Secrecy Act, Reg CC, or the SAFE Act. I can recall pre-BSA procedures, and now we operate in an implemented BSA world; a time of in-branch check encoding and processing to today’s electronic presentment, centralized clearing, and near live-time processing; and of course, a time when TILA and RESPA were separate disclosures versus today’s mortgage loan application and closing procedures due to TRID rules.
The same will be true after full implementation of a final Section 1071 rule. This law, once finalized, will change how business credit applications are processed. Data will need to be collected and reported as never before. Some members experience similar types of data collection and reporting under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA), but even non-HMDA reporting banks may be required to comply with Section 1071 data collection and reporting.
Based upon recent agency regulatory agenda filings and court filings earlier this month, it is expected that CFPB will finalize its Section 1071 Small Business Lending Data Collection and Reporting Rule by March 2023. Rest assured, I understand the impact this rule will have on the membership. In my comment letter to CFPB regarding its Section 1071 proposal, I advocated for the collection of only those data points required under the Dodd-Frank Act, a higher exemption threshold, and for a longer implementation period to help lessen the impact of the new regulation.
Late last year, WBA prepared a toolkit to help senior management, commercial lenders, loan processors, compliance officers, and others involved with small business lending to better understand the impact of CFPB’s proposal on the bank. Those resources are still available, and I would recommend those in the areas mentioned become familiar with the general concepts of the proposal, understand what could become law, and begin considering the impact on the bank. Planning will be crucial with a regulation as impactful as what Section 1071 will be.
In addition to being vocal during the regulatory process on Section 1071, WBA has advocated for repeal of Section 1071 with our congressional delegation for the last 10 years. Although it is late in the session, I am pleased to share that Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (WI-05) introduced on July 20 the Making the CFPB Accountable to Small Business Act which would repeal Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act. Rest assured, WBA will continue its strong advocacy at all levels to try and reduce this regulatory burden. In the meantime, WBA plans to create further resources once the final rule is released and will help answer questions related to the new regulation.
Current WBA Section 1071 resources may be found on the WBA Compliance Resources webpage.
