CUNA
  • Advocacy
    • Priorities we’re fighting for
    • Actions you can take
  • News
  • Learn
  • Compliance
  • Shop
  • Topics
    • Community Service
    • Compliance
    • Credit Union Hero
    • Credit Union Rock Star
    • Credit Union System
    • Directors
    • Human Resources
    • Leadership
    • Lending
    • Marketing
    • Operations
    • Policy & Issues
    • Sales & Service
    • Technology
  • Credit Union Magazine
    • Buyers' Guide
    • COVID-19
    • Digital Edition
    • Credit Union Hero
    • Credit Union Rock Star
    • Subscribe
    • Advertise
    • Contact
  • COVID-19
  • Advertise
  • Awards
    • Nominate Credit Union Hero
    • Nominate Credit Union Rock Star
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Contact
Learn More about Member Value

News

Member Benefits
Learn more
Learn more about the benefits of membership.
Home » CFPB rulemakings should target industry problems
Policy & Issues

CFPB rulemakings should target industry problems

February 6, 2020

A bipartisan commission at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is essential to preserving its independence, CUNA wrote to the House Financial Services Committee Thursday. The committee heard semi-annual testimony from CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger Thursday.

“The current structure—with a single director—gives too much authority to one person and does not provide meaningful oversight and accountability. It ultimately fails consumers,” the letter reads. “First, it disrupts consumer protection and functioning markets in an interest to achieve a political agenda that suits the party of the president; second, it produces frequent and severe changes in policy that increase costs of compliance that are generally passed on to consumers in the form of higher interest rates and fees, making credit and services more expensive and less available, particularly to vulnerable borrowers.

While entities that must comply with the ever-changing regulatory perspective that the Bureau’s structure produces may have a loud voice, be assured that the consumers the Bureau was intended to protect are the ones who pay the ultimate price of this misguided structure,” it adds, also noting that then-President Barack Obama and then-Harvard Professor Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) proposed legislation creating the CFPB led by a commission.

CUNA also called on the CFPB to execute its regulatory agenda in a way that ensures credit unions and other providers are able to provide safe and affordable products and services.

This includes:

  • Closely monitoring the impact its rules have had on credit unions and their members, and to appropriately tailor regulations to reduce burden or exempt credit unions entirely;
  • Using its statutory authority to grant appropriate exemptions from CFPB regulatory requirements;
  • Not extending the scope of its debt collection rulemaking to include first-party collectors;
  • Revising its short-term, small-dollar rule to ensure credit union participation in the market and to focus on abusers of consumers;
  • Adopting several revisions to its proposed remittances rule to balance consumer protections with consumer access;
  • Considering additional amendments to Home Mortgage Disclosure Act reporting requirements to provide meaningful exemptions to credit unions;
  • Considering potential revisions to the Ability-to-Repay/Qualified Mortgage rule, which would include a “meaningful and prolonged feedback process;”
  • Issuing a rulemaking that would clarify the CFPB’s Unfair, Deceptive or Abusive Acts or Practices approach, which CUNA believes is currently overly subjective;
  • Exempting credit unions from any potential rulemaking to require financial institutions to compile, maintain and submit certain data on small business credit applications.
  • Continuing its engagement with the credit union industry through the Credit Union Advisory Council, roundtable discussions, webinars and other open communications;
  • Basing its rulemakings on thorough data and research;
  • Providing compliance resources to the financial industry, including frequently asked questions with interpretations, webinars with opportunities for questions, annual outreach to stakeholders, among others; and
  • Working with CUNA, credit unions and the National Credit Union Foundation in its consumer education efforts and use those efforts to guide consumer choices and provide a foundation for solid consumer financial health.

KEYWORDS cfpb
Credit Union Magazine - Winter 2020

Winter 2020

Credit Union Magazine’s Winter 2020 edition features CUNA’s 2021 lending outlook, CEO insights on adjusting to the pandemic, and board recruitment strategies.
Digital Edition •  Subscribe

Trending

  • Compliance: 2020 Year in Review, Checklist now available

  • CUNA sends recommendations to incoming Biden administration

  • Compliance: NCUA, agencies issue FAQs on SAR, other AML requirements

Tweets by CUNA_News

Polls

Will you ask employees to receive the coronavirus vaccine?

View Results
More

Champion of America’s Credit Unions

Credit Union National Association is the only national association that advocates on behalf of all of America’s credit unions. We work tirelessly to protect your best interests in Washington and all 50 states. We fuel your professional growth at every level and champion the credit union story at every turn.

More CUNA

  • About
  • Careers
  • Contact Us
  • Recommended Websites
  • Privacy Policy

Resources for

  • CUNA Board Members
  • Credit Union Advocates
  • Leagues
  • Press
  • Vendors