Mulvaney's Mid-FY Report to Congress: Push to Dismantle CFPB's Independence and to Curtail its Consumer Protection Mission Continues

Mulvaney requests that Congress make four changes to the law in the name of establishing meaningful accountability for the Bureau 

1. Fund the Bureau through Congressional appropriations;
2. Require legislative approval of major Bureau rules;
3. Ensure that the Director answers to the President in the exercise of executive authority; and
4. Create an independent Inspector General for the Bureau

There is a disclaimer:

Other than the Bureau’s Acting Director, no other officer or agency of the United States approved these legislative recommendations prior to submission. The views contained herein are those of the Acting Director and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System or the President.

                                                  TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Table of Contents

Message from Mick Mulvaney.................................................................... 1

Table of Contents ........................................................................................ 3

1. Significant problems faced by consumers in shopping for or

obtaining consumer financial products or services ..................................... 5

1.1 Credit invisibles......................................................................................5

1.2 Financial education ................................................................................6

2. Justification of the budget request of the previous year.......................... 7

3. List of the significant rules and orders adopted by the Bureau, as

well as other significant initiatives conducted by the Bureau,

during the preceding year and the plan of the Bureau for rules,

orders, or other initiatives to be undertaken during the upcoming

period.......................................................................................................... 10

3.1 Significant rules ................................................................................... 11

3.2 Less significant rules ........................................................................... 11

3.3 Significant initiatives ........................................................................... 12

3.4 Plan for upcoming initiatives................................................................ 17

3.5 Plan for upcoming rules ....................................................................... 19

4. Analysis of complaints about consumer financial products or

services that the Bureau has received and collected in its central

database on complaints during the preceding year..................................... 20

5. List, with a brief statement of the issues, of the public

supervisory and enforcement actions to which the Bureau was a

party during the preceding year.................................................................. 23

5.1 Supervisory activities........................................................................... 23

5.2 Enforcement activities ........................................................................ 23

6. Actions taken regarding rules, orders, and supervisory actions

with respect to covered persons which are not credit unions or

depository institutions ............................................................................... 44

7. Assessment of significant actions by State attorneys general or

State regulators relating to Federal consumer financial law....................... 45

8. Analysis of the efforts of the Bureau to fulfill the fair lending

mission of the Bureau.................................................................................. 47

8.1 Fair lending supervision......................................................................... 48

8.2 Fair lending enforcement....................................................................... 49

8.3 Fair lending outreach............................................................................. 50

8.4 Interagency coordination....................................................................... 50

9. Analysis of the efforts of the Bureau to increase workforce and

contracting diversity consistent with the procedures established

by the Office of Minority and Women Inclusion. ...................................... 52

9.1 Increasing workforce diversity ..............................................................53

9.2 Increasing contracting diversity .............................................................54

9.3 Diversity within the Bureau contractors’ workforces.............................55  

CFPB MEDIA RELEASE RE-POST BELOW

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:April 2, 2018

CONTACT:Office of CommunicationsTel: (202) 435-7170

CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION BUREAU ISSUES SEMI-ANNUAL REPORT 

Acting Director Mulvaney Recommends Statutory Changes in His First Report to Congress 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Bureau) released its semi-annual report highlighting the Bureau’s work. This is the first report issued by Acting Director Mick Mulvaney and it includes his four recommendations for statutory changes to the Bureau. 

“The Bureau is far too powerful, with precious little oversight of its activities,” said Acting Director Mick Mulvaney. “The power wielded by the Director of the Bureau could all too easily be used to harm consumers, destroy businesses, or arbitrarily remake American financial markets. I’m requesting that Congress make four changes to the law to establish meaningful accountability for the Bureau. I look forward to discussing these changes with Congressional members.” 

In the report’s introduction letter, Acting Director Mulvaney recommends four changes to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act). The first recommendation is to fund the Bureau through Congressional appropriations. The second is to require legislative approval of major rules. His third recommendation is to ensure that the Director answers to the President in the exercise of executive authority. And the fourth is to create an independent Inspector General for the Bureau.

The report primarily covers the Bureau’s significant work from April 1, 2017 to Sept. 30, 2017, the period before the President appointed Mick Mulvaney as Acting Director. As part of its regulatory work, in February 2017, the Bureau established a task force to help identify and reduce unwarranted regulatory burdens consistent with its objectives under the Dodd-Frank Act. During this period, the Bureau also issued guidance on topics such as maintaining compliance management systems, combatting elder abuse, responding to natural disasters, and ensuring accuracy in credit reporting. The Bureau’s enforcement work included actions taken against illegal practices in mortgage servicing, student loan servicing, credit reporting, and debt collection. 

According to the report, during the period Oct. 1, 2016 to Sept. 30, 2017, the Bureau handled approximately 317,200 consumer complaints. The most-complained-about products or services were debt collection at 27 percent of complaints, credit reporting at 27 percent, and mortgages at 13 percent. Approximately 80 percent of all consumer complaints were submitted through the Bureau’s website. Companies have responded to approximately 93 percent of complaints sent to them for response during the period. 

The full text of the semi-annual report is available at: https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_semi-annual-report_spring-2018.pdf 

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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is a 21st century agency that helps consumer finance markets work by regularly identifying and addressing outdated, unnecessary, or unduly burdensome regulations; by making rules more effective; by consistently enforcing federal consumer financial law; and by empowering consumers to take more control over their economic lives. For more information, visit consumerfinance.gov.