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.
Rohit Chopra, President Biden’s choice to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, will have his confirmation hearing on March 2 before the Senate Banking Committee. The battle lines between legislators about the role of the agency are already clear before the hearing starts.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Acting Director Dave Uejio has notified agency employees that the CFPB will be tightening up supervision and enforcement policies, starting with the Military Lending Act. He is preparing the agency for the arrival of Biden’s nominee for director, Rohit Chopra, who is awaiting confirmation by the Senate.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Kathleen Kraninger resigned Wednesday, at the request of President Biden.
Seila Law had challenged the constitutionality of the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and won in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court returned the issue of the legality of the actions against Seila Law back to the appellate court. The CFPB just won that portion of the case in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
House Financial Services Chairman Maxine Waters wrote a 45-page letter to President-elect Joe Biden listing all the regulatory decisions that were made in the last four years in the agencies under her committee’s jurisdiction that she thinks should be reversed when he gets into office. She also wants Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Kathleen Kraninger fired.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Kathleen Kraninger has appointed five new members of her executive team, less than two months before she can expect to be removed from her position by the new president. In addition, she released a new advisory opinion policy that the new administration may not like. The Trump Administration is trying to make the CFPB more corporate-friendly before the Biden Administration takes over and attempts to return it to a strict regulatory agency protecting consumers.
The incoming Biden Administration must “urgently” act to reverse the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s payday lending and debt collection rules, the government watchdog group, Accountable.US said last week. “Over the course of the past four years, the Trump administration has enacted corrupt and harmful policies across environmental, immigration, economic, and many other issues for special interests, many with close ties to the Trump administration, that will negatively impact generations of Americans,” the group said, in announcing the first five rules it wants the administration to overhaul. “To help reverse the damage done, we’re tracking key policies that the next administration