Mulvaney Requests Public Comment on CFPB Operations

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced this week that the agency would begin seeking public input “to ensure the Bureau is fulfilling its proper and appropriate functions to be protect consumers.” The CFPB will engage with stakeholders and interested citizens by issuing a series of Requests for Information (RFI) in the Federal Register on topics concerning enforcement, supervision, rule making, market monitoring, and educational activities.

Earlier this week the Bureau expressed its intent to reconsider the Small Dollar Rule. Each of these reviews of agency authority and work product are part of a large scale revision to the agency’s operations, one that includes a rewrite of the CFPB’s mission by “regularly identifying and addressing outdated, unnecessary, or unduly burdensome regulations.”

First on the list of RFIs is input on the tools used by the agency to inquire into financial service provider behaviors, Civil Investigative Demands (CIDs). Some, like the National Law Journal, are already weighing in on the myriad of issues with current CID implementation at the CFPB.

NAFSA members are familiar with the issues fraught in the CFPB’s CID process. Late last year, two tribal lending entities (TLEs) petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the CID authority of the Bureau, absent a more cooperative investigative structure enshrined in the Dodd-Frank Act. The Supreme Court chose not to hear the case, but the comprehensive review of the CID process and agency operations at the CFPB will allow tribes another opportunity to strike a more cooperative approach with federal officials regarding financial regulation.

Even as his authority to govern the agency is questioned in federal court, Interim CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney works to craft the agency in his image and erase the legacy of previous leadership. Yesterday, he chose to request no money for agency operations from the Federal Reserve, instead deciding to rely upon an emergency fund set up by his predecessor to power the Bureau. Hopefully Mulvaney’s actions will spark a new direction for the CFPB, one that respects tribal sovereignty and self-determination.