The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is seeking comment on whether it should change any regulations it inherited from other federal agencies.
The information collection effort is consistent with acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney's efforts to set the agency on a more pro-industry, anti-enforcement course. Many of the questions the bureau seeks comment on deal specifically with how to ease burdens on businesses. The request for input is the ninth of a series of a similar requests as Mulvaney tries to review all the agency's processes.
For example, the CFPB wants to know if inherited regulations have created unintended consequences, or overlap or conflict with other laws "in a way that makes it difficult or particularly burdensome for institutions to comply."
Mulvaney's mark also can be found in the CFPB's question on whether inherited regulations are advancing the bureau's goals of giving all consumers "access to markets for consumer financial products and services."
The bureau also wants public comment on whether inherited regulations are "incompatible or misaligned with new technologies, including by limiting providers’ ability to deliver, electronically, mandatory disclosures or other information that may be relevant to consumers."
In the notice announcing the request, the agency said it had already separately started reviewing Regulation Z, implementing the Truth in Lending Act, which fell under the CFPB's umbrella with the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act. The bureau is focusing on the parts of the regulation dealing with open-end credit, including credit cards.
Congress gave the CFPB rulemaking authority over 18 federal consumer protection statutes and other specific provisions of the Consumer Financial Protection Act, from which the bureau derives its authority.
The bureau also is looking for feedback on whether inherited regulations should be tailored to certain types of financial companies, such as those of a particular size.
