Letter to CFPB on Small Business Lending under ECOA

Dear Director Chopra,

The American Bankers Association (ABA) appreciates the opportunity to comment on the interim final rule (IFR) establishing mandatory compliance dates for the Bureau's 2023 final rule to implement section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (2023 final rule). The IFR should help avoid confusion and unnecessary burden and ensure that data are collected consistently within and across financial institutions. With those objectives in mind, ABA offers the following comments on the IFR. Our comments include several questions about the 2023 final rule that our members continue to wrestle with as they work on implementation. The Bureau may have responded previously to some questions orally, but it must address these questions in writing, so that banks can move forward with certainty and so that all institutions have the same information.

1. The mandatory compliance dates should be adjusted to the first day of the month following the dates the Bureau published.

The IFR extends the mandatory compliance dates in the Bureau's 2023 final rule, adding 290 days as required in a July 31, 2023, order from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. ABA appreciates the certainty that the IFR provides. However, we request that the CFPB extend the compliance dates slightly so that they begin on the first day of the month. Specifically, tier one should be extended to August 1, 2025; tier two should be extended to February 1, 2026; and tier three should be extended to November 1, 2026. Similarly, for institutions that did not originate at least 100 covered small business loans in 2022 and 2023, but subsequently do so in two consecutive calendar years, mandatory compliance should begin no earlier than November 1, 2026.

Download the comment letter to read the full text.