The CFPB fired all the members serving on three of its advisory boards, including the Consumer Advisory Board, indicating a shift in its approach to external engagement. The consumer agency announced last week that it plans to reconstitute three of its advisory groups – the Consumer Advisory Board, the Community Bank Advisory Council, and the Credit Union Advisory Council – with “new, smaller memberships.” “By both right-sizing its advisory ...
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Acting Director Mick Mulvaney last week abruptly cancelled in-person meetings with the advisory groups, sparking concerns that he is shunning input from outside groups. Shortly afterwards, he disbanded three groups and announced plans to start from scratch. Mulvaney canceled a Consumer Advisory Board meeting scheduled for June 6 and 7, and a previous meeting in February, which the board members said had been on the looks for months. A Credit Union ...
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The CFPB last week dismissed its precedent-setting case against PHH Corp., officially overturning the bureau’s controversial interpretation of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act under former Director Richard Cordray. In the end, the four-year legal battle over alleged RESPA violations regarding captive reinsurance arrangements ended up with no fine or penalty being assessed on the mortgage lender. The final court ruling that upheld the constitutionality ...
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The CFPB and two payday-lending trade groups filed a joint motion seeking a stay of a lawsuit challenging the CFPB payday-lending rule, and to delay the compliance date set by the rule. The lawsuit at issue was filed by the Community Financial Services Association of America and Consumer Services Alliance of Texas in April in a Texas federal district court. The two groups alleged that the consumer agency’s payday-lending rule is unlawful because ...
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Acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney recently announced that the consumer agency will resume the collection of private consumer data. He curbed data collection immediately after he took over the CFPB last year due to cybersecurity concerns. “Out of an abundance of caution and a desire to protect Americans’ privacy, I placed a hold on the collection of personally identifiable information and other sensitive data,” Mulvaney said in a memo to the CFPB staff ...
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Going forward, the CFPB plans to consider the scale and frequency of violations when determining future enforcement actions, Acting Director Mick Mulvaney said. In remarks at a public policy luncheon hosted by Women in Housing and Finance, a professional group, Mulvaney said the consumer agency will decide whether the violations are systematic or intentional when determining potential actions against companies under its jurisdiction. For example, 12,000 violations ...
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Mick Mulvaney has made many significant changes at the CFPB since President Trump named him acting director of the agency in November. Attorneys said the organizational changes may have the most profound impact. Mulvaney was not a fan of the consumer bureau, which he called a joke “in a sick, sad way.” Six months into his interim tenure, he was doing everything he could to change the consumer agency both structurally and operationally, in how it makes ...
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The CFPB issued its first complaint report since Mick Mulvaney was appointed acting director. The report differs from the monthly complaint reports issued under former Director Richard Cordray. The bureau in late May released a complaint snapshot on debt collection. It provides complaint data as of April 1, 2018. The last monthly complaint report was released in October 2017 before Cordray left. One significant change in the new report is that it does not include complaint volume ...
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Democratic lawmakers sent comment letters to the CFPB in response to its request for information regarding the bureau’s rulemaking processes, emphasizing the importance of data collection in making new rules. Sens. Elizabeth Warren, MA, and Mark Warner, VA, wrote in a comment letter to Acting Director Mick Mulvaney that data collection is essential to rulemaking at the CFPB. “The CFPB’s decision-making is at its best when it has data to guide the ...
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In response to a request for information on external engagements, both industry groups and consumer advocates want the CFPB to increase external engagement and pay more attention to it. The agency now has four advisory groups – the Consumer Advisory Board, the Community Bank Advisory Council, the Credit Union Advisory Council and the Academic Research Council. The bureau also uses other forums such as town hall meetings and field hearings to obtain ...
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Democratic State AGs Urge CFPB to Retain Public Access to Consumer Complaint Database. A coalition of 15 state attorneys general, led by New York AG Barbara Underwood, sent a joint letter to the CFPB, urging the bureau to retain its public database of consumer complaints. In the letter, the AGs said a public consumer complaint database is consistent with the CFPB’s statutory mandate in the Dodd-Frank Act, The law requires the agency to [Includes three briefs] ...
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