By Douglas Gillison
NEW YORK, April 30 (Reuters) - The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Thursday substantially narrowed Biden-era regulations intended to combat discrimination in lending to small businesses, reducing the number of banks that will be required banks to collect data on race and gender data from borrowers, according to a Federal Register notice.
The changes to the rule, which was mandated by Congress following the 2008 financial crisis, mark the Trump administration's latest
rollback of regulations intended to help prevent bias against racial and social minorities.
Under the new version finalized Thursday, only banks that originate 1,000 or more small business loans in each of the prior two years will be required to comply with the anti-discrimination rule, an increase from the prior level of 100 loans. The new rule also removes references to gender identity or the business ownership's LGBTQI+ status.
Industry groups welcomed the change, even though it appeared to reject industry concerns that narrowing the regulation's scope in this way could exclude all but large lenders, harming fair lending enforcement and resulting in less meaningful data.
Acting CFPB Director Russell Vought, who is also President Donald Trump's budget director, said in a statement that the change would make small business credit more affordable while minimizing the regulatory burden for small businesses with "invasive DEI questions."
"This is a long-awaited win for both borrowers and small businesses," he said.
Americans for Financial Reform, a pro-consumer organization that pushes for stricter oversight of the financial sector, said the change further weakened a critical civil rights tool, which it said was "unnecessary and immoral."
'SIGNIFICANTLY' REDUCE DATA
Following years of delays, the CFPB in 2023 under former President Joe Biden finalized the rule, requiring banks to collect demographic data similar to that collected for mortgage borrowers. The administration at the time said this would help combat discrimination and promote investment.
The rule sparked pushback from the industry and conservative critics, who said it far exceeded what Congress had envisaged and was an invasive burden that could ultimately reduce the volume of small business loans offered. Banks sued to kill the rule, which had yet to take effect.
In a joint public comment in December, the Bank Policy Institute and the Consumer Bankers Association, two of Washington's largest bank lobby groups, had said that raising the threshold this high would "significantly reduce the availability of comprehensive data" and could hinder fair lending enforcement as a result.
However, the CFPB rejected this, saying that the change would still cover between 92-93% of small business lending, which it says was largely confined to bigger banks.
CBA and BPI did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday but in a statement CBA President Lindsey Johnson said the new version represented "meaningful progress."
The rule is due to take effect in January 2028.
(Reporting by Douglas Gillison in Washington; Editing by Michelle Price, Elaine Hardcastle and Aurora Ellis)
