The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) should tailor rules to not be overly burdensome on credit unions, as credit unions are the original consumer financial protectors. CUNA submitted comments to the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee Tuesday for CFPB Director Rohit Chopra’s testimony before the committee.
“The CFPB has missed many opportunities to leverage credit unions’ mission and history to the benefit of consumers and finalized regulations that ultimately hampered credit unions and their members,” the letter reads. “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 entities engaged in the very activity the CFPB’s rules were designed to curtail.
“Under Director Rohit Chopra’s leadership, the Bureau has yet again missed numerous opportunities to recalibrate its approach to regulation in a manner that fulfills its consumer protection mission without impeding consumers’ access to credit or safe and affordable financial products and services,” it adds.
CUNA highlighted several principles it believes should guide CFPB actions, including:
CUNA also raised additional areas of concern with the CFPB, including its broad classification of “junk fees;” increasing financial services engagement with unregulated providers; the importance of an accurate credit reporting system; strong opposition to any proposal with a national “all in” usury cap; and caution regarding any legislation to expand the scope of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
Chopra is scheduled to testify Wednesday before the House Financial Services Committee.