NAFCU, Member CUs Meet With CFPB On Data Collection

WASHINGTON—Representatives of NAFCU and its member credit unions met with CFPB staff this week at the Bureau’s headquarters to discuss small-business lending and the potential impact on credit unions of a Dodd-Frank Act data collection requirement regarding women- or minority-owned small businesses.
Attendees from Andrews Federal Credit Union, CommonWealth One Federal Credit Union, Democracy Federal Credit Union, Lafayette Federal Credit Union, Money One Federal Credit Union and Washington Gas Light Federal Credit Union were present at the meeting, along with NAFCU Director of Regulatory Affairs Alexander Monterrubio, Senior Regulatory Affairs Counsel Michael Emancipator and Regulatory Affairs Counsel Andrew Morris.
The CFPB is currently requesting information on small business lending in preparation for future rulemaking mandated by Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act. The provision requires financial institutions to collect and report information – whether the business is a small business and women- or minority-owned – and give this information to the CFPB using systems similar to those used to collection information for the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act rule.
NAFCU reported that the meeting focused on the relatively small size of the credit union business lending market compared with the overall market and how the member business lending cap and fixed costs of originating MBLs have led to two-thirds of the industry not originating MBLs.
NAFCU, credit unions and CFPB staff also discussed how to define small businesses and small business loans as well as how participation loans are underwritten by credit unions, the trade association noted.