On November 13, the CFPB published a proposed rule in the Federal Register to revise certain provisions of Regulation B, subpart B, implementing section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act’s amendments to ECOA. The proposal reconsiders the scope of covered credit transactions and financial institutions, the definition of small business, the specific data points to be collected, and the compliance dates. As previously covered by InfoBytes, the Bureau had extended compliance dates for the 2023 final rule; now, it is seeking feedback on further extensions.

The CFPB’s proposal took an incremental approach, initially focusing on core lending products and essential data points, among other things, to advance section 1071’s statutory purposes. The agency determined that the prior rule’s broad coverage created regulatory complexity, especially for smaller lenders, and that a narrower scope would reduce disruption to the flow of small business credit.

Key proposed changes include:

• Excluding merchant cash advances, agricultural lending, and small dollar loans from the definition of covered credit transactions.
• Excluding Farm Credit System lenders from coverage.
• Raising the origination threshold for financial institutions from 100 to 1,000 covered credit transactions for each of two consecutive years.
• Adding a bona fide error provision in the enforcement section of the rule.

The CFPB also proposed extending the compliance date for all covered financial institutions to January 1, 2028. Comments on the proposed rule must be received on or before December 15, 2025.