After years of unlawful delay, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued its Section 1071 Final Rule to collect data from financial institutions on lending to women-owned, minority-owned, and small businesses and make the data publicly available to facilitate enforcement of fair lending laws and curb lending discrimination. 

When the Trump administration’s CFPB defied Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 by failing to collect and disclose this data, a coalition including small business owners from Waterloo, Iowa and Portland, Oregon, the California Reinvestment Coalition (CRC), and the National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders (NALCAB) – represented by Democracy Forward and Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP – sued to compel the agency to follow the law. In response to that lawsuit, the CFPB signed a settlement agreement in which it committed to meeting court-ordered deadlines for the implementation of Section 1071. 

In response to today’s issuance of the Section 1071 Final Rule, Jeff Dubner, Deputy Legal Director of Democracy Forward, released the following statement:

“The Trump administration broke the law when it delayed this critical rulemaking, and we’re glad to see that, after years of unnecessary delay, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has issued its Final Rule on Section 1071. While it shouldn’t have taken a lawsuit for the agency to comply with the law, this final rule will allow our clients, small businesses, and organizations across the country to better identify and address discriminatory lending practices by financial institutions.” 

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