Article summary
The CFPB's revised Section 1071 rule excludes merchant cash advance transactions from small-business lending data reporting. Separately, a Colorado bank rate-cap case awaits an en banc Tenth Circuit decision, and New York expanded General Business Law § 349.
Article content
Three threads matter for merchant cash advances right now, and they are not the same story.
At the federal level, the CFPB's revised Section 1071 rule excludes MCA transactions from small-business lending data collection and reporting.
That is a reporting-rule change, not a finding that MCAs are outside all federal oversight.
Separately, Colorado is fighting a bank rate-cap case in the Tenth Circuit, and New York has amended its business-practices statute.
Here's where each thread stands.
(Updated November 2026.) CFPB Section 1071: MCA Transactions Excluded From Data Reporting In its 2023 Section 1071 rule, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau concluded that "credit" under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act encompasses merchant cash advances, which brought MCAs into the rule's small-business lending data collection requirements.
The CFPB's revised Section 1071 rule, published in the Federal Register on May 1, 2026, adds MCAs to the list of excluded transactions, so they are not covered by the data collection and reporting requirements.
The rule takes effect June 30, 2026, with a compliance date of January 1, 2028.