The new director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has issued her first semiannual report to Congress in which she describes the actions covered in the report – from April 1 to Sept. 30, 2018 – occurred prior to her joining the agency but “provide a backdrop and a launching pad for a fresh start at this agency.”
“Protecting consumers was a primary objective of the Dodd-Frank Act. Supervising financial entities to ensure they comply with the law in this area, and enforcing the law when they don’t, are ways to meet that objective,” CFPB Director Kathleen (“Kathy”) Kraninger wrote in the opening message to the report. “While I am Director, the CFPB will vigorously and even- handedly enforce the law.”
The report covers actions taken place from last spring into fall, but it also provides a brief list of initiatives and rules anticipated in the bureau’s most recent portions of the federal unified regulatory agenda. It also discusses agency supervisory and enforcement actions, consumer complaints, and certain actions by state authorities related to federal consumer financial law.
The plan for upcoming rules, pulled from the unified federal regulatory agenda published in the fall, references the agency’s plan to reconsider the payday rule (which is the subject of two recent proposals to both remove the rule’s ability-to-repay, or “mandatory underwriting provisions,” and to delay their implementation in the meantime until November of 2020).
It also recaps some of last year’s actions, including:
- Amendments Relating to Disclosure of Records and Information:This rule will include procedures used by the public to obtain information from the Bureau under the Freedom of Information Act, the Privacy Act of 1974, and in legal proceedings.
- Summaries of Rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (RegulationV):The bureau is seeking comment on an interim final rule that adjusts certain model forms under the Fair Credit Reporting Act in light of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (EGRRCPA) amendments to strengthen consumers’ ability to protect themselves from identity theft.
- Technical Specifications for Submissions to the Prepaid Account Agreements Database:The bureau will publish technical specifications prescribing the form and manner in which issuers are to submit prepaid agreements, any amendments or withdrawals thereof, and related information to the bureau pursuant to the requirements in the prepaid accounts rule.