The American Bankers Association and four associations last week urged the CFPB to abandon plans to gather data from automobile lenders about their lending portfolios, saying the bureau lacks the legal authority to make such a request and is grossly underestimating both the sensitivity of the information and the burden on lenders in collecting it.
The CFPB seeks approval from the Office of Management and Budget to collect annually extensive data from lenders; the collection mirrors orders issued last year to the nine largest auto lenders seeking 120 data points including loan terms and consumer complaints. The bureau also proposed to collect more limited data from lenders that originated between 500 and 20,000 loans in the previous calendar year. In the letter, the associations criticized the CFPB for not including the survey instrument to be used in the expanded data collection. The associations also challenged the bureau’s assertion that it can use its freestanding authority to monitor “for risks to consumers in the offering or provision of consumer financial products or services,” noting that Congress did not give the bureau unbounded authority. Indeed, “Congress typically mandates extensive data collections through precise language in legislative acts” such as section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act and the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA).
The associations also said the CFPB would be collecting an enormous amount of data about the personal finances of millions of Americans, which could be used to identify individuals, and it has not stated whether that information will be public. Furthermore, the bureau has estimated the annual burden for lenders in collecting information would come out to about 1,375 hours—an estimate the groups calculate is off by a magnitude of 3,000. “The CFPB provides no information to support this estimated burden,” the groups said.
