Section 1071 Small-Business Data Collection: Where Tribal Lenders Stand

Section 1071 of Dodd-Frank — the small-business analogue to HMDA — has had an unusually eventful three years. The CFPB issued the final rule in March 2023, the Fifth Circuit and a Texas district court stayed compliance through 2024, and the Bureau extended compliance dates again in 2025 to give covered lenders a longer runway.

Tribal lenders that originate small-business credit need to know two things. First, the rule applies based on origination volume, and the thresholds catch more programs than operators initially assume — particularly TLEs that have diversified into merchant cash advance, equipment finance, or working-capital products. Second, the data points required are extensive: pricing, action taken, denial reasons, demographic information about principal owners, and gross annual revenue, among others.

The Tribal Nations we work with are using the extended runway productively. They are mapping their loan-origination systems to the required data points, deciding whether demographic collection will be applicant-provided or visual-observation-based, and writing the firewall procedures that keep underwriters from seeing demographic data during the credit decision.

None of this is glamorous. All of it is materially easier to do now, on a calm timeline, than to retrofit in the quarter before the first filing is due.