Three advisory groups – representing credit unions, community banks and consumers at large – will meet Sept. 15 via conference call to discuss federal consumer financial law, the groups’ sponsor, the federal consumer financial protection agency, said Friday.
In filings with the Federal Register, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) said the meeting of the three groups – the Credit Union Advisory Council (CUAC), the Community Bank Advisory Council (CBAC), and the Consumer Advisory Board (CAB) – would be open to the public. However, in order to receive dial-in information and the agenda to the conference call, members of the public need to register in advance (that is, provide an RSVP) by noon Sept. 14.
According to the CFPB’s filings, the agendas for the meetings of the groups are the same: meet with the bureau’s taskforce on federal consumer financial law to share recommendations on improvements to the current state of federal consumer protection laws, regulations, and practices. The bureau said the taskforce’s meetings with the group is “part of the taskforce’s ongoing public outreach effort to solicit feedback to inform its work.”
Last October, the bureau announced it would establish the taskforce that would be charged with “examining ways to harmonize and modernize federal consumer financial laws” by studying the existing legal and regulatory environment facing both consumers and financial services providers. The group is charged with reporting back to Bureau Director Kathleen Kraninger.
The model for the group – which ultimately counted five members – is a commission established by the Consumer Credit Protection Act in 1968. “In addition to various changes to consumer law generally, the Act established a national commission to conduct original research and provide Congress with recommendations relating to the regulation of consumer credit,” the agency said in when it announced the establishment of the task force last year.
The members of the taskforce are:
- Todd J. Zywicki (taskforce chair), professor of law at George Mason University (GMU) Antonin Scalia Law School, Senior Fellow of the Cato Institute, and former Executive Director of the GMU Law and Economics Center;
- Howard Beales, III, former professor of strategic management and public policy at the George Washington University and former director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC);
- Thomas Durkin, senior economist (retired) at the Federal Reserve Board;
- Jean Noonan, partner at Hudson Cook, former general counsel at the Farm Credit Administration and former associate director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection’s credit practice at the FTC.
RSVP to joint CFPB advisory group conference call with taskforce on federal consumer financial law