CFPB reform bill would ensure ‘measured, balanced’ approach to CUs

CUNA wrote the House Financial Services Committee in support of several pieces of legislation to modernize the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and ensure its approach to credit unions is measured and balanced. The committee conducted a markup starting Wednesday of various legislation, including a package from Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., the CFPB Transparency and Accountability Reform Act (H.R. 2798).

“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 towards predatory entities engaged in the very activity the CFPB’s rules were designed to curtail.”

CUNA supports several titles of H.R. 2798, including:

• Title I, based on legislation from Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-Mo., that would replace the single CFPB director with a Senate-confirmed, bipartisan commission.
• Title II, based on previous legislation from Barr, that would fund the CFPB through the appropriations process and change it into an independent agency, the Consumer Financial Empowerment Agency.
• Title V, based on legislation by Rep. Alex Mooney, R-W.V., that would require the CFPB to publish justification, cost-benefit analysis, alternatives, small business impact, and all data used for any proposed rulemaking.
• Title VI, based on legislation from Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Pa., which would repeal section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act and replace it with language requiring the CFPB to explicitly justify decisions that ignore the interests of small businesses during the rulemaking process.