For Immediate Release:
May 15, 2025
Contact:
Robert Mayo | hello@woodstockinst.org
**Media Interviews Available Upon Request**
CHICAGO – In response to the news that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will not enforce its rule requiring financial institutions to report data regarding their lending to small businesses, Horacio Méndez, President & CEO of Woodstock Institute, a consumer protection nonprofit, issued the following statement:
“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) should be protecting small businesses, not looking the other way and pretending that discrimination magically disappeared. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what the Administration’s decision not to enforce its own rule, known by policy geeks like me as Section 1071, amounts to.”
“Just as the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, in effect since 1975, made it possible to see the pervasive evidence of redlining that prevented Black and Brown mortgage applicants from accessing homeownership, Section 1071 would simply give law enforcement and the public the tools they need to hold lenders accountable when they lend money to small businesses.”
“While this news does not come as a surprise, given that Project 2025 put Section 1071 in its crosshairs, it is a reminder that as federal oversight is eroded, states must step up to the plate to pass legislation that protects consumers and small businesses. One such example is the Small Business Financing Transparency Act (SB260 Belt/HB1921 Mayfield), which would require lenders to disclose the APRs of their loans and require certain types of lenders to report data to the State. Unfortunately, the Illinois General Assembly decided for the third year in a row not to pass this small business protection bill. We intend to continue to push for the passage of common sense financial protections.”
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About Section 1071: The CFPB developed this data collection rule for lenders to small businesses as required by Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. There is little data available on small business lending by banks while data on nonbank lenders to small businesses are practically nonexistent. Both types of institutions are covered by Section 1071. The data collected is meant to illuminate patterns of disparity in small business lending, such as those reported in Illinois by Woodstock Institute in 2019.
Woodstock Institute is a leading policy and research nonprofit that advocates for consumer financial protection and community economic development. Our work seeks to combat structural inequities and to improve the quality of life in lower-income neighborhoods and communities of color. Among our areas of focus are predatory lending, access to banking, debt collection, and municipal fines and fees.
