CFPB Task Force: Help Consumers, Not Financial Industry

By Better Markets

Better Markets has called on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s task force to help consumers and not cater to the financial industry.

Millions of Americans who rely on credit cards, auto loans and mortgages need protection from predatory behavior in these markets,” says Steve Hall, legal director and securities specialist. “But time and time again over the last three years, the CFPB has turned its back on consumers and catered to the financial services industry.” 

Now the Bureau has set up a task force, ostensibly designed to help strengthen consumer protections in the financial industry.  It would seem, however, that the task force is really intended to provide cover for the Bureau’s continuing effort to pull back from strong oversight of the financial services industry.

“In our comment letter and fact sheet, we detail the de-regulatory history of the Bureau under this Administration and we expose the extraordinarily pro-industry slant of the task force members, including the chair who is notoriously and passionately anti-regulation,” Hall says. “We then call upon the task force to take a number of key steps. Above all, the task force must recognize that the single most important way for the Bureau to improve consumer protection is to embrace the core pillars of financial regulation that once guided the agency—strong rules, vigilant oversight, and aggressive enforcement. The bottom line is that fraud and abuse are still abundant in many financial services, and the Bureau doesn’t need a task force to figure out how best to protect consumers.”

Hall adds that Better Markets hopes the task force proves us wrong and develops recommendations that “truly advance the cause of consumer protection in meaningful ways. Time will tell.” Read more here.

Originally posted here.