President Biden vetoes bill on CFPB small business data rule

Federal Issues Executive Order CFPB Section 1071 U.S. Senate White House

On December 19, President Biden vetoed bill S. J. Res. 32 that would have repealed the CFPB’s small business data collection rule known as “Small Business Lending Under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (Regulation B).” As previously covered by InfoBytes, the small business data collection rule, under Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act, requires small business owners to provide demographic data (i.e., race, gender, ethnicity, etc.), as well as geographic information, lending decisions, and credit pricing to lenders. According to President Biden’s statement accompanying the veto, the CFPB’s final rule brings “transparency to small business lending” and repealing this rule would “hinder” the government’s ability to conduct oversight of predatory lenders. The bill is now to be returned to the Senate to be voted on again and can only become law if two-thirds of members support the bill. Separately, in October, a U.S. District Court in Texas imposed an injunction on the CFPB’s small business data rule (covered by InfoBytes here).