House Financial Services Committee Advances H.R. 941 ECOA Lending Reform
Summary
The House Financial Services Committee advanced H.R. 941, the "Small Lenders Exempt from New Data and Excessive Reporting" (LENDER) Act, by a 26-22 vote on April 21, 2026. The bill would amend ECOA's Section 1071 small business lending data collection requirements by exempting institutions originating fewer than 2,500 small business credit transactions in each of the two prior calendar years or with less than $10 billion in assets, delaying the compliance date to June 1, 2031, and redefining "small business" from $5 million to $1 million in gross annual revenues.
“H.R. 941, as amended, would: (i) exempt financial institutions that originated fewer than 2,500 small business credit transactions in each of the two prior calendar years or that have less than $10 billion in assets from the requirements; (ii) delay the compliance date until June 1, 2031, followed by a two-year safe harbor during which penalties may not be imposed;”
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What changed
The bill would substantially narrow Section 1071 data collection requirements added by Dodd-Frank. Key changes include: (i) exempting lenders with fewer than 2,500 small business loan originations per year or under $10 billion in assets; (ii) extending the compliance date to June 1, 2031 with a two-year penalty safe harbor; (iii) requiring lenders to notify applicants they may refuse to provide demographic data; (iv) prohibiting visual observation to collect demographic information; and (v) redefining small business from $5 million to $1 million in gross annual revenue.
Affected financial institutions should monitor H.R. 941's progress as it could significantly reduce the scope of Section 1071 compliance obligations. Lenders currently preparing for Section 1071 implementation should track both this legislative effort and the CFPB's separate November 2025 NPRM, which proposes narrowing the rule's scope and extending compliance to January 1, 2028.
Archived snapshot
Apr 27, 2026GovPing captured this document from the original source. If the source has since changed or been removed, this is the text as it existed at that time.
April 27, 2026
House Financial Services Committee advances bill to reform ECOA’s small business lending data collection requirements
On April 21, the House Financial Services Committee voted 26-22 to advance H.R. 941, the “Small Lenders Exempt from New Data and Excessive Reporting” (LENDER) Act, introduced by Chairman French Hill (R-AR). The legislation, which the committee adopted via a substitute amendment, would amend the ECOA’s small business lending data collection requirements, as added by Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act. Section 1071 requires financial institutions to collect and report data on credit applications from small businesses, including women-owned and minority-owned businesses.
H.R. 941, as amended, would: (i) exempt financial institutions that originated fewer than 2,500 small business credit transactions in each of the two prior calendar years or that have less than $10 billion in assets from the requirements; (ii) delay the compliance date until June 1, 2031, followed by a two-year safe harbor during which penalties may not be imposed; (iii) enshrine a small business loan applicant’s “right to refuse” by requiring lenders to inform applicants in writing that the data collection is required by the CFPB, that the applicant is not required to provide the information, and that the response will not affect the credit decision; (iv) require the CFPB to establish a plain-English model form for the notification; (v) narrow the statutory data points that financial institutions must collect by striking certain categories; (vi) prohibit the use of visual observation or any method other than applicant self-reporting to collect demographic information; (vii) prohibit the CFPB from using a financial institution’s low response rate as a factor in determining compliance; and (viii) redefine “small business” as an entity with gross annual revenues of $1 million or less, compared to the CFPB’s existing $5 million threshold.
As previously covered by InfoBytes, the CFPB’s 2023 implementing rule has been the subject of numerous legal challenges. Under the current administration, the Bureau has moved to revise the 2023 rule, issuing an NPRM in November 2025 (covered by InfoBytes here) proposing to narrow its scope, raise origination thresholds, reduce the number of data points that must be collected, and extend the compliance date to January 1, 2028. Most recently, on April 16, the Bureau submitted its final Section 1071 reconsideration rule to OMB for review (covered by InfoBytes here).
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Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
2026
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