The acting director for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau today signaled a widespread reevaluation of the agency, which is tasked with ensuring financial institutions follow the rules.
According to a press release issued Wednesday, Mick Mulvaney, the part-time acting director for CFPB who also heads the Office of Management and Budget, plans to seek public comment on the agency’s role when it comes to enforcement, rulemaking and other issues “to ensure the Bureau is fulfilling its proper and appropriate functions to best protect consumers.”
As Big If True reported yesterday, Mulvaney plans to “fix” the agency and cut back on regulations that CFPB previously created in its role to protect American consumers. For instance, CFPB issued a statement yesterday that it may reconsider a rule affecting the payday loan industry that requires lenders to ensure their customers can repay certain short-term and longer-term loans.
Since Mulvaney’s appointment in November, the agency has stopped filing enforcement actions. During the same two-month period a year ago, CFPB filed 12 enforcement actions against financial institutions.
According to its press release, the bureau will begin its reevaluation process by seeking comment on documents called civil investigative demands, which CFPB’s Office of Enforcement issues to collect information during investigations. Recipients can petition CFPB to challenge the demands, which first happened in 2012 under former director Richard Cordray.
In that case, mortgage lender PHH had petitioned the agency but was ordered to comply with the demand within 21 days. PHH is also responsible for a lawsuit against CFPB that resulted in enforcement action against the corporation being tossed out and a judge ruling the agency’s structure unconstitutional. The bureau has appealed that ruling.
Just four months ago, the Office of the Inspector General for CFPB and the Federal Reserve released a study on the bureau’s compliance when it comes to civil investigative demands. That report found CFPB had generally followed requirements when it comes to the demands, but offered some recommendations related to how they are written and their recordkeeping.
Contact Mollie Bryant at 405-990-0988 or bryant@bigiftrue.org. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.