1071 Repeal to Protect Small Business Lending Act
The 1071 Repeal to Protect Small Business Lending Act would eliminate the small business loan data collection requirements currently imposed under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) by removing Section 704B. Those data collection rules were added to ECOA as part of the Dodd-Frank Act. The bill argues that repealing these requirements will reduce regulatory costs for financial institutions—especially smaller banks and credit unions—and potentially improve access to credit for small businesses by easing compliance burdens. In addition to repealing the data collection rule, the bill makes conforming amendments to remove references to the repealed section across the Dodd-Frank Act and ECOA, effectively undoing the regulatory framework that supported small business loan data reporting. In short: the bill repeals small business loan data reporting under ECOA, trims related regulatory references, and bases the repeal on reducing costs and barriers for lenders, with the aim of expanding small business credit access.
Key Points
- 1Repeal of ECOA Section 704B: The bill repeals the small business loan data collection and reporting requirements that were added to ECOA (as implemented via Dodd-Frank Section 1071).
- 2Conforming amendments to Dodd-Frank: The bill removes the item related to Section 1071 from the Dodd-Frank Act’s table of contents and strikes Section 1071 itself from the law.
- 3Conforming amendments to ECOA: The bill removes Section 704B from the ECOA’s table of contents and makes its textual changes to the Act (including adjusting certain subsections) to reflect the repeal.
- 4Rationale and findings: The bill cites increased compliance costs and potential reductions in small business lending access, with disproportionate effects on smaller institutions like community banks and credit unions, as motivation for the repeal.
- 5Short title: The act is formally named the “1071 Repeal to Protect Small Business Lending Act.”