Mulvaney Outlines Goals for CFPB Mission Rooted in Statute

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Acting Director Mick Mulvaney is bringing the agency’s activities within its statutory boundaries, he told attendees at the American Bankers Association’s Government Relations Summit this morning. “We are going to do what the law tells us to do,” he said, brandishing a printed copy of the bureau’s authorizing statute.

For example, he said the bureau has ceased the “regulation by enforcement” practiced under the previous director. He also questioned the extent of the CFPB’s public consumer complaint database. “I don’t see anything in here that says I have to have a Yelp run by the federal government,” he said, referring to the popular reviews site.

He also signaled a coming branding change for the bureau, whose name in the Dodd-Frank Act is Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection but which has been publicly branded as CFPB. The bureau is “in the process” of changing the public branding to align with the statutory name, which would be expected to result in a new acronym: BCFP.