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The Good and Bad of a Fully Functional CFPB
In an opinion piece and blog post circulated last week, IBAT President and CEO Chris Williston weighed in on President Obama’s recent appointment of a director to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
“The absence of a director was creating a window during which unregulated, non-traditional financial entities such as payday lenders, private student lenders and other financial intermediaries could continue to escape direct oversight and rulemaking of the CFPB. Regulated financial institutions welcome the closing of that window,” Williston wrote.
However, the appointment of a director, Williston notes, does not come without concern for many community bankers who, “worry that the CFPB will propose rules that will hurt our customers and stifle our ability to provide competitive and innovate products for small businesses.”
The ultimate test of the CFPB, he concluded, will be “how the agency intends to implement ‘tiered regulation’ and resist the temptation to promulgate rules to fit all institutions.”