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Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) amended the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) to require, subject to rules prescribed by the Bureau, financial institutions to report information concerning credit applications made by women-owned, minority-owned, and small businesses. The amendments to ECOA made by the Dodd-Frank Act require that certain data be collected, maintained, and reported, including the number of the application and date the application was received; the type and purpose of the loan or credit applied for; the amount of credit applied for and approved; the type of action taken with regard to each application and the date of such action; the census tract of the principal place of business; the gross annual revenue of the business; and the race, sex, and ethnicity of the principal owners of the business. The Dodd-Frank Act also provides authority for the Bureau to require any additional data that the Bureau determines would aid in fulfilling the purposes of this section. The Bureau may adopt exceptions to any requirement of section 1071 and may exempt any financial institution from its requirements, as the Bureau deems necessary or appropriate to carry out section 1071's purposes. The Bureau issued a Request for Information in 2017 seeking public comment on, among other things, the types of credit products offered and the types of data currently collected by lenders in this market, and the potential complexity, cost of, and privacy issues related to, small business data collection. In November 2019, the Bureau hosted a symposium on small business data collection to facilitate its decision-making. The symposium explored how to efficiently collect appropriate data without imposing unnecessary or undue costs that could limit access to credit from existing market participants or discourage new entrants into the market for small business credit. The information received in response to the Request for Information and the symposium will help the Bureau as it determines how to implement the statute efficiently while minimizing burdens on lenders. In addition, the Bureau is working to conduct a survey of lenders to obtain estimates of one-time costs lenders of varying sizes would incur to collect and report data pursuant to section 1071. The Bureau’s next step will be the release of materials in advance of convening a panel under the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (SBREFA), in conjunction with the Office of Management and Budget and the Small Business Administration’s Chief Counsel for Advocacy. Through this SBREFA process, the Bureau will hear from representatives of small businesses on which Bureau rules to implement section 1071 may impose costs.