The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s focus too often has been on increasing its authority rather than on instituting checks and balances to ensure that authority is used for the benefit of consumers and consistent with law, the American Bankers Association said in a statement to House lawmakers.
The House Financial Institution Subcommittee is held a hearing Wednesday on the CFPB. In a statement submitted ahead of the hearing, ABA said it supports strong consumer protections but the bureau needs to be reformed to accomplish that mission. The association listed several bills that would change the bureau in substantial ways, including proposed legislation to create a bipartisan commission to oversee the CFPB, to change the bureau’s funding structure to subject it to congressional appropriations, and to clarify the bureau’s authority to enforce legal standards for the unfair, deceptive, and abusive acts and practices.
“There must be more accountability, and to accomplish this the ABA has long advocated for reforms that would help ensure that Americans continue to have access to the financial products they want and need, along with the protections they deserve,” ABA said.
