WASHINGTON—A bill has been introduced in Congress that would provide relief to small businesses and lenders from the CFPB’s proposed data collection rule under section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act.
Sens. John Boozman (R-AK), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and Kevin Cramer (R-ND) have introduced the S.4004, The Small LENDER Act, which would give credit unions and credit union service organizations that originated at least 25 covered small business credit transactions in each of the two preceding calendar years would be required to collect and report small business credit application data, including data related to the ethnicity, race, and sex of small business applicants' principal owners, NAFCU noted.
NAFCU Vice President of Legislative Affairs Brad Thaler shared support for the bill, stating that it would ensure the CFPB’s section 1071 rule “will accurately target true small businesses and not indirectly raise the cost of capital for them.”
Thaler stated that S.4004, The Small LENDER Act, would establish “a 500 covered transaction threshold, codify a small business as one with $1 million or less in revenue, and provide a three-year implementation schedule with an additional grace period , which will ensure that the rulemaking will not go far beyond the intent of the requirements in Dodd-Frank.”