Preserve the Critical Role of the Consumer Financial Protection Board, Argues Professor David Reiss
In his latest column for The Hill, Professor David Reiss takes issue with recent recommendations from the U.S. Treasury Department to limit the powers of the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Earlier this month, the Treasury Department issued a report to President Trump proposing what Reiss calls a “dramatic weakening” of the government’s role in protecting consumers from financial fraud through new constraints on the CFPB.
“The CFPB is one of the most effective elements of the Dodd-Frank Act,” Reiss writes. “Most importantly, it has changed the ethos of the financial services market from a ‘watch your wallet’ environment to one where consumers can feel they are getting a fair deal from lenders. The importance of this change cannot be overstated, but 10 years after the financial crisis, many have forgotten just how predatory the mortgage market and other consumer credit markets can be.”
The Treasury recommended that Congress enact legislation to limit the CFPB’s independence, but Reiss believes this would present “a Trojan horse opportunity for special interests to gut the CFPB’s supervisory, enforcement, and monitoring authority.”