In testimony before the Senate Banking Committee today, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director nominee Kathy Kraninger outlined her key priorities for leading the agency if confirmed, pledging to ensure that the CFPB functions in a fair and transparent manner and is accountable to taxpayers.

The House by a vote of 217 to 199 today passed H.R. 6147, a minibus appropriations bill which included a number of financial services provisions backed by the American Bankers Association.

In a comment letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau yesterday -- the twelfth and final one that the association will submit as part of the bureau’s ongoing feedback initiative -- ABA urged the bureau to encourage consumers to contact their bank directly to express a concern with a product or service prior to filing a formal complaint with the CFPB.

President Trump today announced the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to fill retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy’s seat on the Supreme Court.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Deputy Director Leandra English said today that she will resign next week, ending her court claim to be recognized as acting director of the bureau, which until now was pending in federal appeals court.

In response to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s eleventh of 12 requests for information, ABA issued a comment letter encouraging the CFPB to broaden the scope of the financial education it provides and promotes.

In the latest in its series of comment letters to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau responding to the bureau’s 12 requests for information, ABA emphasized the important role of clear and agency-binding guidance in facilitating compliance with regulations and added that guidance should not be used as a basis for enforcement actions.

In a comment letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau today -- the ninth of 12 that the association will submit in response to the bureau’s ongoing feedback initiative -- ABA encouraged the bureau to update the regulations and related commentaries it inherited from other federal agencies on a regular basis as issues and questions arise and markets evolve.

As part of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s ongoing feedback initiative, ABA and its transaction banking subsidiary BAFT, joined by the Clearing House and the Consumer Bankers Association, urged the CFPB to make several much-needed rule changes to its remittance rule.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau should consider whether the rules it has written since 2011 are “consistent with the law, clear, and whether they promote the financial interests of consumers in a strong, vibrant, and innovative market that offers the variety of financial products and services that consumers want and value,” the American Bankers Association said in a comment letter to the bureau today.