Washington, D.C. (Feb. 16, 2022) — The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) today expressed support for three House bills to mitigate the negative impact of a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposal implementing new data collection and reporting requirements for small-business loans.
“While ICBA supports the CFPB proposal’s goal of expanding access to credit for minority-owned, women-owned, and small businesses, we are concerned that its overly broad coverage will disadvantage community bank business customers,” ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey said today. “These newly introduced bills from Reps. French Hill, Blaine Luetkemeyer, and Roger Williams will help ensure the CFPB tailors its Dodd-Frank Section 1071 rule to mitigate unintended consequences for small-business customers.”
The ICBA-supported bills are:
- The Small Lenders Exempt from New Data and Excessive Reporting Act (Rep. French Hill), which expands the 1071 proposal’s community bank and small-business exemptions while extending its implementation period to allow covered entities to hone their systems.
- The Business Loan Privacy Act (Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer), which would require the CFPB to conduct a rulemaking on proposed modifications and deletions to loan data the bureau will publish, which would allow the public to weigh in and help protect the privacy of credit applicants.
- The Preventing Racial Profiling in Lending Act (Rep. Roger Williams), which would eliminate the proposal’s requirement that loan officers guess the race or ethnicity of small-business credit applicants based on their last name and physical appearance, a policy that would compromise collected data while undermining the right of credit applicants not to disclose this information.
The House bills follow ICBA’s recent comment letter calling on the CFPB to exempt more community banks and small businesses from its proposal to limit the chilling effect on small-business lending.
About ICBA
The Independent Community Bankers of America® creates and promotes an environment where community banks flourish. ICBA is dedicated exclusively to representing the interests of the community banking industry and its membership through effective advocacy, best-in-class education, and high-quality products and services.
With nearly 50,000 locations nationwide, community banks constitute roughly 99 percent of all banks, employ nearly 700,000 Americans and are the only physical banking presence in one in three U.S. counties. Holding nearly $5.9 trillion in assets, over $4.9 trillion in deposits, and more than $3.5 trillion in loans to consumers, small businesses and the agricultural community, community banks channel local deposits into the Main Streets and neighborhoods they serve, spurring job creation, fostering innovation and fueling their customers’ dreams in communities throughout America. For more information, visit ICBA’s website at www.icba.org.
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