Small Business Lending Data Rule Teed Up for Re-proposal
November 4, 2025
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) final rule on small business finance reporting (aka Section 1071) will soon get a reproposal.
Why it matters: The 1071 reporting requirements are intended to collect data on loan applications and originations made to small businesses. The CFPB did not exempt CRE mortgages from the final rule originally issued in 2023.
- The CFPB is expected to propose a new rule more closely adhering to the Dodd Frank statute. The proposal is expected imminently.
- The data collection rule, which includes commercial mortgages made to small businesses with under $5 million in revenue, has been delayed by litigation and administrative action. In June 2025, the CFPB extended the compliance deadline by one year.
- CREFC advocated with other trades to exempt CRE and multifamily from 1071 reporting. Click here for the joint trade letter and click here for CREFC’s high-level letter.
- The original final rule largely exempts multifamily loans, which are reported separately under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA), but does not exempt loans secured by commercial real estate made to a small business.
Go deeper: The re-proposal could provide relief or limit the impact to CREFC members.
- The small business threshold is generally a business with under $5 million in gross annual revenue.
- Affiliate revenue counts in determining if the borrower is a small business. So if the legal borrower is a special purpose entity, the sponsor’s or affiliate’s revenue can exclude a loan as being to a small business.
- A lender must make 100 loans to small businesses in each of the preceding two years to be required to report. For CREFC members, that means 100 loans made to borrowers with under $5 million in gross annual revenue (including affiliates). But the threshold is institution-wide, not limited to a particular business line.
- Multifamily loans are excluded from 1071 reporting since they are accounted for already in the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) reporting.
Yes, but: Financial institutions with a dedicated small business lending platform will likely continue to be included.
- Without criteria to exclude CRE mortgages, the loans to small businesses will have to be collected and reported, even if that business line doesn’t make 100 CRE loans. That collection and reporting could add burdens to CRE business lines.
- CREFC will analyze any final rule and coordinate with members on a response.
Please contact David McCarthy (dmccarthy@crefc.org) with questions.