- theMReport.com - https://themreport.com -

Scrutinizing Reforms at CFPB

CFPB HearingIn a hearing by the House Financial Services Committee [1] in April, Mick Mulvaney, Acting Director at the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection [2] (CFPB) had made recommendations [3] to improve the “transparency and accountability,” at the Bureau.

On Wednesday, The Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit held a hearing entitled “Improving Transparency and Accountability at the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection” that discussed Mulvaney’s recommendations and other reforms that would help promote greater transparency and accountability at the Bureau.

In his remarks at the hearing, Subcommittee Chairman Blaine Luetkemeyer said that Mulvaney was striving to foster an environment that promoted transparency, legitimacy, and greater consumer choice. However, recognizing that not all reforms could be done administratively, Luetkemeyer said, "The American people deserve a Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection that enforces the law rather than creates it, and that gives power and choice back to the consumers."

During their testimonies at this hearing, Steven Day, President American Land Title Association [4]; Richard Hunt, President and CEO, Consumer Bankers Association [5]; Kate (Larson) Prochaska, Director Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness, U.S. Chamber of Commerce [6]; Hillary O. Shelton, Director, Washington Bureau and SVP, Advocacy and Policy, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP [7]); and Elmer Whitaker, CEO, Whitaker Bank Corporation [8] of Kentucky gave the panel a number of recommendations. They included:

Apart from these recommendations the Credit Union National Association [9] (CUNA) also sent a letter to the subcommittee urging the CFPB to streamline regulatory burdens for credit unions and work more closely with the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) on compliance.

“Consumers lose when one-size-fits-all rules force credit unions to pull back safe and affordable options from the market, pushing consumers into the arms of the providers engaged in the very activity that the rules were designed to curtail,” the letter said.