News

CFPB Finalizes 1071 Rulemaking

May 5, 2026

Last week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released the final 1071 rule that significantly improves lender requirements by:

  1. Lowering the revenue threshold for a covered small business from $5 million to $1 million;
  2. Raising the loan-volume threshold for reporting from 100 to 1,000 covered loans; and
  3. Narrowing the data points and lending products subject to collection requirements.
Although regulators did not exempt CRE finance from the requirements, they stated the new parameters addressed industry concerns. 

  • The compliance date is January 1, 2028.

1071 History

Dodd-Frank Section 1071 requires regulators to collect data from banks and credit unions on lending to small businesses, women-owned businesses, and minority-owned businesses. 

A 2023 Biden-era “final” rule raised the threshold for what constituted a small business from $1 million in revenue to $5 million and added several required data points, including demographic data. 

  • It largely exempted multifamily loans, which are reported separately under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA).
  • However, it did not exempt loans secured by commercial real estate made to small businesses.

The Trump administration issued a re-proposal in 2025, which proposed the above helpful changes for lenders, yet still fell short of exempting commercial mortgages from data collection. 

In December, CREFC submitted a response to the re-proposal and signed onto a joint trade letter. 

We explained that, as reflected in both the federal regulatory framework and industry practice, CRE finance is fundamentally different from small-business lending. 

  • Credit secured by non-owner-occupied commercial real estate should be exempt from 1071. Loans are underwritten based on the property’s cash flow and collateral value rather than the operating revenues of a business.

The Final 1071 Rule

The rule maintains the proposed changes in revenue threshold and number of loans made as described above. Although the rule does not exempt CRE finance, the regulators stated that a “categorical exclusion is unnecessary” given the new thresholds and role of affiliates:

Setting the gross annual revenue threshold at $1 million rather than $5 million, will likely exclude many of the transactions cited by commenters. Further, because [we allow] financial institutions to include the revenue of an applicant’s affiliates when determining whether an applicant is a small business, single-purpose entities—such as those common in commercial real estate—are permitted to have their revenue aggregated with that of their parent or affiliates for purposes of determining whether they are a small business under this rule. 

CREFC will work with members to understand any concerns or issues that arise during rule implementation and follow up with the CFPB accordingly. 

Please contact Sairah Burki (sburki@crefc.org) with questions.

Contact  

Sairah Burki
Managing Director,
Head of Regulatory Affairs
703.201.4294
sburki@crefc.org
The information provided herein is general in nature and for educational purposes only. CRE Finance Council makes no representations as to the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, validity, usefulness, or suitability of the information provided. The information should not be relied upon or interpreted as legal, financial, tax, accounting, investment, commercial or other advice, and CRE Finance Council disclaims all liability for any such reliance. © 2026 CRE Finance Council. All rights reserved.

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