CFPB Keeps Its Enforcement and Supervision Resources Focused on Pressing Threats to Consumers

Key dates

2025-02-07

The Fifth Circuit stayed the Section 1071 rule pending appeal in Texas Bankers Association v. CFPB and tolled compliance deadlines only for the case’s plaintiffs and intervenors, subject to further court modification.

2025-04-30

The CFPB published the policy statement announcing that it would not prioritize enforcement or supervision against entities outside the Fifth Circuit stay.

2025-05-12

The CFPB withdrew the policy statement as part of its broader withdrawal of policy statements, interpretive rules, advisory opinions, and other guidance.

2025-06-18

The CFPB issued an interim final rule extending Section 1071 compliance dates for all regulated entities by approximately one year; the earliest revised date for the highest-volume tier was July 1, 2026.

2026-05-01

The CFPB issued a final reconsideration rule revising Regulation B subpart B and extending the revised framework’s general compliance date to January 1, 2028.

Suggested considerations

• Compliance teams may wish to avoid treating the 2025-04-30 announcement as a formal repeal, exemption, or safe harbor, and should document the distinction between enforcement prioritization and continuing statutory or regulatory obligations.
• Covered lenders should consider preserving existing Section 1071 governance, data mapping, recordkeeping, and implementation work where proportionate, while assessing whether the 2026 final reconsideration rule changes the applicable scope, data points, procedures, or implementation timetable.
• Firms should consider identifying whether they are plaintiffs, intervenors, or members of an association covered by the Texas Bankers Association stay, because the original court order did not apply uniformly to all covered institutions.
• Compliance teams may wish to monitor the CFPB’s Section 1071 rulemaking, the status of Texas Bankers Association v. CFPB, and subsequent Federal Register amendments rather than relying on the withdrawn policy statement as current guidance.
• Lenders should consider retaining an audit trail for any decision to pause, scale, or continue implementation, including legal analysis of the applicable rule version, court orders, CFPB amendments, and operational or fair-lending risks.
• Covered institutions may wish to assess whether existing small-business application and demographic-data processes could support future reporting, because the CFPB’s enforcement posture did not eliminate potential litigation, examination, state-law, fair-lending, or reputational exposure.

What changed

The CFPB stated that it would deprioritize enforcement and supervision of the Small Business Lending Rule against entities not covered by the court-ordered stay, citing limited resources and the perceived unfairness of treating similarly situated institutions differently. The statement did not create a formal exemption, alter Regulation B, remove Section 1071 data-collection and reporting obligations, or expand the Fifth Circuit’s stay, which initially tolled compliance dates only for the plaintiffs and intervenors in Texas Bankers Association v. CFPB. Independent commentary generally characterized the announcement as an effective enforcement pause or practical permission to pause implementation, while cautioning that the rule remained legally operative and that a new rulemaking was expect

Who is affected

• Banks originating covered small-business credit
• Credit unions originating covered small-business credit
• Fintech lenders and other nonbank financial institutions covered by Regulation B subpart B
• Small-business lending platforms that collect or report application data on behalf of covered financial institutions

Related regulations

• Regulation B
• Equal Credit Opportunity Act
• Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act Section 1071