On October 2, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) published a final rulein the Federal Register, officially extending compliance dates for its 2023 small business lending data collection and reporting rule under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and Regulation B, which implements Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act. The final rule replaces an interim rule released in June 2025 that pushed back compliance deadlines. This extension was issued by the CFPB in response to ongoing litigation by both industry and consumer advocacy groups, as well as court orders, to create a uniform timeline for financial institutions to comply with data collection and reporting requirements for women-owned, minority-owned, and small businesses.
Background
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 introduced Section 1071, amending the ECOA to require covered financial institutions to collect and report specific data on small business lending. The CFPB’s final rule, which amended Regulation B, mandates that covered financial institutions collect and annually report data on covered applications from small businesses, including demographic data about the principal owners and credit information.
In response to the CFPB’s 2023 final rule, both industry and consumer advocacy groups sued the Bureau, which resulted in stays issued by courts in Texas, Kentucky, and Florida, impacting compliance deadlines for certain plaintiffs.
As we previously reported, the CFPB published an interim final rule extending compliance dates for the 2023 final rule for all covered financial institutions in June 2025 (2025 interim final rule) to ensure uniformity. The 2025 interim final rule extended compliance dates by approximately one year, allowing covered financial institutions additional time to prepare while creating a level playing field for all covered financial institutions.
Final Rule
After review of public comments, the CFPB confirmed its findings from the 2025 interim final rule and determined that no further changes were necessary. Thus, the Bureau made no changes to the 2025 interim final rule compliance dates. In addition, the Grace Period Policy Statement described in the 2025 interim final rule remains in effect.
In the final rule, the CFPB stated that the extension of the compliance dates should be sufficient to ensure uniformity of compliance dates in court-ordered stays while giving the Bureau adequate time to issue a new proposal to reconsider certain aspects of the 2023 final rule.
New Compliance Dates
The CFPB has extended the compliance dates by approximately one year, providing additional preparation time for covered financial institutions. The revised compliance schedule is as follows:
- Tier 1 institutions (highest volume lenders): New compliance date is July 1, 2026, with the first filing deadline on June 1, 2027.
- Tier 2 institutions (moderate volume lenders): New compliance date is January 1, 2027, with the first filing deadline on June 1, 2028.
- Tier 3 institutions (smallest volume lenders): New compliance date is October 1, 2027, with the first filing deadline on June 1, 2028.
Financial institutions can choose to use their small business originations from 2022 and 2023 to determine their compliance tier, or they may instead use their originations from 2023 and 2024, or from 2024 and 2025, to determine their compliance tier. Covered financial institutions are permitted to begin collecting protected demographic data required under the 2023 final rule 12 months before their new compliance date in order to test their procedures and systems.
Next Steps
The final rule gives small business lenders additional time to prepare for implementation of data collection and reporting requirements until at least July 1, 2026, which should be welcome news, while also providing the Bureau with more time to revisit the 2023 final rule and make adjustments in response to industry concerns. The CFPB has publicly stated that it plans to initiate a new rulemaking process to revamp the Section 1071 rule and anticipates issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking soon.
