The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau today finalized changes to its regulations regarding the disclosure of records and information. These changes address the confidential treatment of information obtained from persons in connection with the exercise of its authorities under federal consumer financial law.
Among other things, the final rule amends certain definitions and makes other clarifying changes to subparts A and D of section 1070 of title 12 of the Code of Federal Regulations. With these changes, “the bureau has sought to provide the maximum protection for confidential information, while ensuring its ability to share or disclose information to the extent necessary to achieve its mission.”
In response to advocacy by ABA, the bureau declined to adopt a more expansive definition of the term “agency” in the final rule, which the association opposed in a 2016 joint trades comment letter. In addition, the CFPB also omitted from the final rule previously proposed changes that would have threatened the confidentiality of supervisory information banks provide to CFPB examiners by allowing the bureau to disclose confidential supervisory information to any agency it deems relevant, including state attorneys general, foreign regulators and state bar associations.
