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The Consumer Bankers Association (CBA) is calling on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to stay out of politics and stay focused on its founding mission.
In a response to a recent CFPB Request for Input on external engagements, CBA Vice President and Associate General Counsel David Pommerehen wrote in a letter to CFPB Acting Director Mick Mulvaney that the regulator would best serve consumers and financial institutions by governing with transparency and offering an “informed policy” that is free from a partisan agenda. He also warned about issuing press statements on enforcement orders that use overstated language that could malign a financial institution’s reputation.
“A well-functioning Bureau is critical to maintaining a thriving and stable consumer finance marketplace, and it is important that the Bureau, as it has done in the past, does not pursue a seemingly predetermined political agenda to unilaterally shape the public message,” Pommerehen wrote. “To accomplish this, CBA believes greater transparency and openness would uphold the agency as an independent and impartial regulator.”
Pommerehen echoed advice offered by Mortgage Bankers Association President and CEO David H. Stevens that the CFPB hold regular stakeholder meetings for policy considerations, adding that the CFPB should seek input from its advisory boards on pending rules and not just finalized rules. However, he stopped short of Stevens’ recommendation for a new advisory council devoted to housing finance policy.
