CFPB prepares to “enhance” small business lending

On Dec. 23, the CFPB closed the application period for an assistant director, small business lending markets, a job paying up to $275,000 for identifying opportunities to “enhance fairness, transparency and functioning” of small business lending markets.

On Dec. 23, the CFPB closed the application period for an assistant director, small business lending markets, a job paying up to $275,000 for identifying opportunities to “enhance fairness, transparency and functioning” of small business lending markets. Read the job description here.

Since the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act, the bureau has lain dormant on the 2010 law’s section 1071, which amends the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. The purpose of the amendment, section 1071 says, “is to facilitate enforcement of fair lending laws and enable […] governmental entities and creditors to identify business and community development needs and opportunities of women-owned, minority-owned, and small businesses.”

When a business applies for credit, financial institutions are required to “inquire whether the business is a women-owned, minority-owned, or small business,” section 1071 says. They must also “maintain a record of the responses to such inquiry, separate from the application and accompanying information.”

Section 1071 requires financial institutions to ”compile and maintain, in accordance with regulations of the bureau, a record of the information provided by any loan applicant…The bureau may also, at its discretion, compile and aggregate data collected under this section for its own use; and make public such compilations of aggregate data.”

In April 2011, the CFPB issued guidance stating that the data collection and submission obligations do not go into effect until the CFPB issues necessary implementing regulations.

Now, with its assistant director, small business lending markets, the CFPB looks to implement the data gathering required by section 1071. But what’s more, the assistant director will be responsible “for developing recommended strategies for regulatory and non-regulatory interventions,” the job posting said.

Fredrikson & Byron Law