A panel formed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in January to review and recommend updates to consumer financial laws and rules will produce a two-volume report that will include historical information, analysis of products and services, and recommendations for improvements, according to a blog post Tuesday by the panel chair.
The CFPB announced its Task Force on Consumer Financial Law in January to examine laws and rules governing financial products and services. Modeled on a panel created 52 years ago, the taskforce is charged with providing recommendations to bureau Director Kathleen Kraninger on how to “modernize, harmonize, and strengthen” those provisions.
The request for information (RFI) issued in March to generate feedback to the taskforce (following a listening session with consumer advocacy and trade groups) generated some 96 comments, according to the website Regulations.gov. The comment period closed June 1.
Todd Zywicki, the taskforce chair, said feedback to the five-member panel will be used to inform the two-volume report to Kraninger. Specifically, the first volume will provide a historical overview of consumer financial protection laws, analyze costs and benefits of financial products and services, outline redundancies and gaps in the current regulatory framework, and assess the current state of the laws and their influence on consumers and the marketplace, he wrote. The second volume will provide a set of recommendations for the bureau on ways to improve and strengthen the application of financial laws and regulations.
“All of this activity will be centered around the underlying principle of strengthening consumer protections in the financial marketplace, in accordance with our statutory mandate,” Zywicki said.
In the meantime, the panel is planning a public hearing and a listening session in coming months. Noting the ongoing health pandemic, Zywicki said the public hearing, with details to come later this summer, will be held “at a time and in a format that enables participation consistent with the safety of all participants.”
The taskforce also intends to participate in a public listening session in the fall, he wrote, with the CFPB’s four advisory committees (those would be the Consumer Advisory Board [CAB], Academic Research Council [ARC], Community Bank Advisory Council [CBAC], and Credit Union Advisory Council [CUAC]).
“Insights from the RFI, the public hearing, our research, and the advisory committee listening session will help inform the recommendations that will ultimately be included in our final report to Director Kraninger,” Zywicki said.
Taskforce on Federal Consumer Financial Law charting a path ahead