CFPB Withdraws Proposed Registry Of Nonbank Contract Terms

On October 29, 2025, CFPB withdrew its proposed rule titled Registry of Supervised Nonbanks That Use Form Contracts To Impose Terms and Conditions That Seek To Waive or Limit Consumer Legal Protections, which was published on February 1, 2023. The proposed rule would have required nonbanks to submit annual reports on the terms and conditions in their form contracts and on related court or arbitrator decisions on the enforceability of those terms and conditions. The proposed rule would have required the Bureau to publish such information and registrants' identifying information. See our prior blog about the proposed rule.

The notice stated two specific reasons for the withdrawal. First, the need for a registry was speculative and did not justify the regulatory burden. Specifically, the CFPB stated, "Moreover, the Bureau believes, after consideration of comments, that, as a policy matter, the Proposed Rule's attempt to disincentivize conduct through the collection of vast amounts of data regarding typically lawful contract terms amounts to regulatory overreach, and is a misguided use of the Bureau's authorities that dilutes the Bureau's ability to identify true risk to consumers."

Second, the speculative benefit to the public for publication did not justify the regulatory burden. Specifically, the CFPB stated, "The Bureau nevertheless believes, as it does with the registration requirement discussed above, after consideration of comments, that the Proposed Rule's publication requirement was a misguided attempt to stigmatize regulated entities into changing form contracts that, by and large, contain lawful terms with little, if any, evidence to justify such aggressive regulatory overreach."

The CFPB also considered four alternatives to the proposed rule that it determined were not appropriate or viable, including requiring registration of all supervised nonbanks regardless of their use of covered terms and conditions, limiting the definition covered terms and conditions to those prohibited by law, collecting additional data to help support any potential benefits, and eliminating the publication requirement.

On this same date, the CFPB rescinded its final rule on Registry of Nonbank Covered Persons Subject to Certain Agency and Court Orders.

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