HMDA vs CRA vs Section 1071: What Each Rule Collects and Who Has to File

HMDA, CRA and Section 1071 are three separate federal reporting regimes. HMDA (Regulation C) covers applications for dwelling-secured loans. CRA data reporting covers small business, small farm and community development loans at banks above the small bank size. Section 1071 (Regulation B, subpart B) will cover small business credit applications at lenders that originate at least 1,000 a year for two years running.

They overlap more than their names suggest. All three hang on a census tract, two of them ask about demographics, and one loan can look like it belongs on two registers when the rules put it on only one. Below, the three sit side by side. Every threshold and date below comes from the current regulation text or the agency notice that set it, and the sources are listed at the end. Rules as of October 13, 2026.

HMDA, CRA and Section 1071 side by side

HMDA (Regulation C)

HMDA coverage is tested in two layers: first the institution, then the loan. A bank, savings association or credit union is a reporting institution under 12 CFR 1003.2(g) if it meets every one of these on the relevant dates. Its assets on the preceding December 31 exceeded the CFPB's annual threshold, which is $59 million for data collected in 2026 (CFPB, January 7, 2026). It had a home or branch office in an MSA on that date. It originated at least one first-lien home purchase loan, or a refinancing of one, on a one-to-four unit dwelling in the preceding year. It is federally insured or regulated, or that loan had a federal connection. And it originated at least 25 closed-end mortgage loans or at least 200 open-end lines of credit in each of the two preceding calendar years. For-profit mortgage lenders that are not depositories skip the asset test and only need the MSA office and the same loan-volume test.

The loan layer is where most of the day-to-day judgment sits. A covered loan is a closed-end mortgage loan or open-end line of credit secured by a dwelling that is not on the exclusion list in 12 CFR 1003.3(c). That list includes temporary financing, loans on unimproved land, purchases of partial interests, loans used primarily for agricultural purposes, and business-purpose loans that are not a home purchase, home improvement or refinancing. The business-purpose exclusion is narrower than it sounds. A loan to buy or improve a rental property is still reportable even when the borrower is a company.

Insured banks and credit unions that originated fewer than 500 closed-end loans (or fewer than 500 open-end lines) in each of the two preceding years have a partial exemption under 1003.3(d). They still report, but they can leave out a defined set of optional data points. A bank loses the partial exemption if it received a CRA rating of "needs to improve" in each of its two most recent examinations, or "substantial noncompliance" in its most recent one. That is one of two places where the CRA and HMDA rules reach into each other.

The loan/application register is due by March 1 following the calendar year, under 12 CFR 1003.5(a). Institutions that reported at least 60,000 covered loans and applications combined, not counting purchases, for the preceding year also file quarterly, within 60 days of the end of each of the first three quarters.

CRA data collection

CRA rules are in an unusual position right now. The agencies issued a new CRA final rule in October 2023, but it has been challenged in court and is enjoined. In their January 2026 notice of this year's thresholds, the Federal Reserve and FDIC state that the legacy CRA regulations remain in effect. The OCC and FDIC published another CRA proposal on August 12, 2026, but it is a proposal and changes nothing yet. Everything in this section describes the legacy text.

CRA applies to insured depository institutions as the Federal Deposit Insurance Act defines them (12 U.S.C. 2902), so credit unions are outside it. The data requirement depends on asset size. For 2026, the Federal Reserve and FDIC define a small bank as one with assets under $1.649 billion as of December 31 of either of the prior two years, and an intermediate small bank as one at or above $412 million in both of those years but still under the small bank ceiling. The OCC adjusts its own figures, and we keep every year's CRA asset-size thresholds on one page.

Under the legacy rule (12 CFR 228.42, with matching sections at 25.42 and 345.42), every bank except a small bank collects, for each small business or small farm loan it originates or purchases, a loan identifier, the amount at origination, the loan location, and whether the borrower had gross annual revenue of $1 million or less. A bank that was not a small bank in the prior year also reports, by March 1:

• For each geography where it made such loans, the number and amount of small business and small farm loans in three bands: $100,000 or less, over $100,000 up to $250,000, and over $250,000, plus the loans to businesses and farms with revenue of $1 million or less.
• The total number and amount of community development loans.
• A list of the census tracts in each assessment area.
• For HMDA reporters, the location of home mortgage applications, originations and purchases outside the MSAs where the bank has an office.

The CRA "small business loan" is not defined by the borrower's size. Legacy 12 CFR 228.12(v) points to "loans to small businesses" as the Call Report instructions define them, and the $1 million revenue figure is a separate indicator attached to each loan. Keep that in mind when you get to Section 1071, which defines small business by the borrower instead.

Section 1071 (Regulation B, subpart B)

Section 1071 was rewritten by the CFPB's reconsideration final rule, published May 1, 2026 as Federal Register document 2026-08494 and effective June 30, 2026. Under the amended text:

• Covered institution. A financial institution, other than a Farm Credit System lender, that originated at least 1,000 covered credit transactions for small businesses in each of the two preceding calendar years (12 CFR 1002.105(b)).
• Small business. A business with gross annual revenue of $1 million or less for its preceding fiscal year (1002.106(b)).
• Compliance date. January 1, 2028 for an institution that originated at least 1,000 such transactions in each of 2026 and 2027. The rule lets an institution use 2025 and 2026 instead. One that crosses the threshold later complies under the two-year test, but no earlier than January 1, 2029 (1002.114).
• Filing. The small business lending application register goes to the CFPB by June 1 following the calendar year (1002.109).

Not every business credit product counts. 12 CFR 1002.104(b) excludes trade credit, HMDA-reportable loans, insurance premium financing, public utilities credit, securities credit, incidental credit, merchant cash advances, agricultural lending, and transactions of $1,000 or less. Plenty of guidance written before May 2026 still lists merchant cash advances as covered. The current text excludes them.

The data points, listed in 1002.107(a), are application-level: a unique identifier starting with the institution's LEI, application date, credit product, guarantees, loan term, credit purpose, amount applied for, amount approved or originated, action taken and its date, census tract, gross annual revenue, a 3-digit NAICS code, time in business, minority-owned and women-owned business status, the ethnicity, race and sex of principal owners, and the number of principal owners. A principal owner is an individual who directly owns 25 percent or more of the business. If you want to test whether the rule reaches you at all, our Section 1071 coverage checker runs the two-year count in your browser, and our Section 1071 overview covers the requirement in more depth.

Where the three overlap

One loan goes on one register

Section 1071 excludes any covered loan or application as Regulation C defines it (1002.104(b)(2)). So a business-purpose loan secured by a dwelling that HMDA reaches, such as a loan to an LLC to buy a four-unit rental, goes on the HMDA LAR and stays off the 1071 register. The exclusion turns on Regulation C's definition of a covered loan, so for any dwelling-secured business loan, settle the HMDA question first and run the 1071 analysis second. For a single loan, our HMDA reportability checker settles that first question and cites the Regulation C section that decides it.

Census tract, placed three different ways

All three regimes depend on placing a loan in a census tract, but they place different things. HMDA geocodes the property securing the loan, and requires the tract only for property in a county of more than 30,000 people in an MSA where the institution has an office (1003.4(a)(9)). CRA reports small business and small farm lending by geography, and the tract's income level drives how examiners read it. Section 1071 geocodes where the loan proceeds will be principally applied, and falls back to the business's main office or another address if that is unknown, with a flag saying which one was used (1002.107(a)(13)). One geocoding engine can serve all three, but it has to be fed three different addresses.

Two definitions of small business

CRA uses the Call Report category for the loan and a $1 million revenue flag for the borrower. Section 1071 uses $1 million in gross annual revenue as the definition itself. A loan can be a CRA small business loan and not a 1071 small business transaction, or the reverse. Count them separately, because the two totals will not match.

Demographics, collected differently

HMDA records applicant ethnicity, race and sex, and whether that information was collected on the basis of visual observation or surname (1003.4(a)(10)(i)). Section 1071 asks the business for its principal owners' ethnicity, race and sex and for its own minority-owned and women-owned status, and the official commentary says the institution may not make its own determination of those business statuses. CRA data collects no demographic information about borrowers at all. Fair lending review of small business lending will draw on the 1071 fields once they exist. For mortgage lending it already draws on HMDA.

A CRA rating can change your LAR

A bank with a poor CRA record loses the HMDA partial exemption, as covered above, so an examination result can change which fields you report on the LAR the following year.

Running all three from one system

Because the three regimes share a tract, a borrower file and often the same origination system, the practical cost is mostly in keeping them consistent: the same address geocoded the same way, and no loan counted on two registers. In Comply, CRA data comes in through the same Import Wizard as the LAR, goes through the same geocoding and edit checks, and sits in the same database, as set out on the Comply HMDA/CRA page. The SBL 1071 module handles owner demographics, application-level data and the CFPB submission in that same database, and the Comply SBL (1071) page describes how its Submission Wizard checks that data is edit-free and fully geocoded before it writes the file.

If you would rather see the HMDA and CRA side running on real data, you can book a walkthrough.

Sources

• 12 CFR part 1003 (Regulation C), sections 1003.1 to 1003.5 and Supplement I, eCFR, up to date as of October 8, 2026, retrieved October 13, 2026.
• Home Mortgage Disclosure (Regulation C) Adjustment to Asset-Size Exemption Threshold, CFPB, Federal Register document 2026-00087, January 7, 2026, retrieved October 13, 2026.
• Community Reinvestment Act Regulations Asset-Size Thresholds, Federal Reserve Board and FDIC, Federal Register document 2026-00042, January 7, 2026, retrieved October 13, 2026.
• 12 CFR 228.42 and 228.12, legacy CRA regulations as of March 29, 2024 (matching OCC and FDIC text at 12 CFR 25.42 and 345.42), eCFR, retrieved October 13, 2026.
• Community Reinvestment Act Regulations, notice of proposed rulemaking, OCC and FDIC, Federal Register document 2026-16454, August 12, 2026, retrieved October 13, 2026.
• 12 U.S.C. 2902, Community Reinvestment Act definitions, Legal Information Institute, retrieved October 13, 2026.
• 12 CFR part 1002, subpart B (Regulation B, small business lending data collection) and Supplement I, eCFR, up to date as of October 8, 2026, retrieved October 13, 2026.
• Small Business Lending Under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (Regulation B), CFPB, Federal Register document 2026-08494, May 1, 2026, retrieved October 13, 2026.

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