Having survived the Trump Administration, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau should reassert its authority and issue tough rules on payday lending, overdraft fees and debt collection, U.S. PIRG, a public interest and consumer group, said in a new report.
The National Credit Union Administration is an above-average place to work, but the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ranks far lower, according to the annual “Best Places to Work in the Federal Government” survey conducted by the Partnership for Public Service.
President Biden last week announced his intention to nominate Acting Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Dave Uejio to a key position at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
If confirmed by the Senate, Uejio would become HUD’s assistant secretary for fair housing and equal opportunity.
The ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee is asking for an investigation into allegations that the Biden Administration’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is pushing out top career-level civil servants in an effort to fill the positions with the people who agree with the agency’s new leadership.
Appearing to confirm the suspicions of Democratic critics, the Government Accountability Office reported Monday that the Trump Administration haphazardly reorganized the consumer bureau’s fair lending office, resulting in confusion at the agency and a drop in enforcement actions.
In a scathing report, the Government Accountability Office said the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, under then Acting Director Mick Mulvaney and then former Director Kathleen Kraninger, failed to produce any documentation to justify transferring the agency’s Office of Fair Lending and Equal Opportunity to another branch in the director’s office.
Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee are asking congressional budget writers for an $8.5 million increase for the National Credit Union Administration’s Community Development Revolving Loan Fund in FY22.
That represents an increase of almost 567% over the $1.5 million the program received during the current fiscal year. The Democrats said that 40% of the CDRLF funds should be set aside for Minority Depository Institutions.
The House passed the SAFE Banking Act, which would provide banks and credit unions with a regulatory safe harbor if they provide financial services to marijuana related businesses in states where cannabis is legal. The bill also stops a possible “Operation Choke Point,” prohibiting financial regulators from requiring an institution to stop doing business with a company solely based on the company’s reputational risk. The fate of the bill in the Senate is not clear.
A bipartisan group of senators on Tuesday introduced legislation that would make it easier for credit unions and banks to provide financial services to marijuana-related businesses.
Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Steve Daines (R-Mt.) and 27 cosponsors introduced the bill. The same bill was introduced last week in the House.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced it plans to change a Trump Administration policy and that it will now take enforcement and supervisory actions as a result of abusive acts or practices. It will no longer follow the policy instituted by former Director Kathy Kraninger that significantly narrowed the definition of “abusive acts or practices” and thus avoided enforcement actions under those terms. The new policy will take effect the day it is published in the Federal Register.
Republican senators this week introduced legislation that would prohibit large banks and credit unions from refusing to provide banking services to legal businesses. It is an attempt to prevent the Biden Administration from restarting Operation Choke Point, an Obama Administration project that was intended to hold financial institutions accountable for processing known fraudulent transactions. Republicans worry that approach would allow banks to avoid providing services to gun-related businesses and other controversial business ventures.