Two events – one virtual, the later one in person – are slated for August and September to begin a discussion with financial institutions and their providers on implementation of an upcoming small-business lending data reporting and collection rule, the federal agency charged with consumer financial protection said Monday.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) said the events are targeted towards in-house technologists at financial institutions and providers or vendors that support financial institutions in building, modifying, or using software systems for regulatory compliance. The sessions will facilitate a discussion, it said, of the technical implementation that will be needed to prepare for the agency’s upcoming final rule, a required rulemaking under Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act.
A final rule, according to an agenda also noted Monday in an agency semiannual agenda (see related story today), is slated for action next March.
The two events, each covering the same material, are scheduled for Aug. 19, which is to be held virtually (online); and Sept. 15, which will be an in-person event held at the bureau’s headquarters building in Washington.
The CFPB issued its proposed rule on small-business data collection and reporting last September; comments were due in January. The proposed rule would revise the bureau’s Regulation B, which implements the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), to require lenders to disclose the amount and type of small business credit applied for and extended, demographic information about small business credit applicants, and key elements of the price of the credit offered. The bureau said the proposed reporting requirements would apply to a wide range of credit products, including term loans, lines of credit, credit cards, and merchant cash advances
The CFPB’s upcoming events are aimed in part at providing the CFPB with input on technologist needs. It says the sessions, featuring representatives of the bureau’s technical staff, “will not discuss or seek input on the merits or potential outcome of any ongoing rulemakings or take questions pertaining to the substance of such rulemakings.”
During the sessions, it said, the CFPB’s technical team will provide information and examples from historical practices on the following topics:
- how the CFPB builds regulatory compliance technology systems, like data submission platforms;
- possible approaches to authentication and application programming interfaces (APIs);
- technical data submission standards, edits, and validations; and
- technologist implementation support previously offered, including accepting feedback on what may be helpful for this implementation.
More information and a link to registration (carried out as an RSVP), are on the bureau’s website.