The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) offered its support for a bill approved by the House Financial Services Committee that will help community banks.
The committee passed the Small Lenders Exempt from New Data and Excessive Reporting (LENDER) Act (H.R. 941), which would exempt most community banks from small-business data collection and reporting requirements under Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act.
“ICBA and the nation’s community banks applaud House Financial Services Committee members for voting to advance much-needed legislation exempting the vast majority of community banks from intrusive and overly burdensome data collection and reporting requirements for small-business loans,” ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey said.
The bill was sponsored by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Rep. French Hill (R-AR).
“Community banks play a crucial role in our financial ecosystem. They foster competition, serve underserved communities, and drive economic growth. By reducing excessive reporting requirements, we are not only alleviating burdens on these institutions but also enhancing their ability to serve their customers,” Hill said.
Section 1071 requires lenders to collect and report data on credit applicants, including the race, sex, and ethnicity of the principal owners as well as gross annual revenue. This new bill would:
- Exempt community banks under $10 billion in total assets from 1071 reporting.
- Exempt banks that originated fewer than 2,500 small business loans in each of the previous two calendar years.
- Define a “small business” as one with gross annual revenues of $1 million or less in the most recently completed fiscal year.
“Committee Chairman French Hill’s Small LENDER Act will help ensure these misguided requirements do not degrade the ability of community banks to meet the needs of small businesses, require financial institutions to burden their customers with invasive and personal questions, and permit the CFPB to publicly report this sensitive data,” Rainey said.
In 2025, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed a new rule that would exempt all banks that made fewer than 1,000 loans to businesses with less than $1 million in gross annual revenue in each of the previous two calendar years. Congress enacting an expanded exemption threshold in statute would create more durable regulatory relief.
“We strongly encourage the full House to take up and pass this critical legislation to ensure community banks can continue ensuring locally based economic growth in communities across the nation,” Rainey said.
The bill now advances to the full House for consideration.