The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau [1] (CFPB) has sent a legislative proposal to Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Vice President Mike Pence in his capacity as president of the U.S. Senate to clarify its supervisory authority for compliance of lenders with the Military Lending Act. The proposal was also shared with the chairs and ranking members of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and the House Committee on Financial Services.
Through this proposal [2], CFPB has asked Congress to clarify the bureau's authority to supervise for compliance with the Act. According to Kathleen L. Kraninger, Director, CFPB, the bureau's commitment to the financial wellbeing of service members included "ensuring that lenders subject to our jurisdiction comply with the Military Lending Act so our service members and their families are provided with the protections of that law."
"That’s why I have asked Congress to explicitly grant the Bureau authority to conduct examinations specifically intended to review compliance with the MLA," Kraninger said in a statement. "The requested authority would complement the work the Bureau currently does to enforce the MLA."
One of the key amendments sought by CFPB is to insert a sub-section within the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 to include "supervision with respect to Military Lending Act compliance.
Specifically, the sub-section would address requirements for the bureau to have authority to require reports and conduct examinations to assess the compliance of lenders to MLA, obtain information about the activities and the associated compliance systems or procedures for military lenders, and detecting and assessing associated risks to consumers and the markets for consumer financial products and services associated with military lending.
The comments from the bureau come after the house recently proposed the H.R. 442 legislation that aims to amend the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 to extend the supervisory authority of CFPB to include assessing compliance with MLA.