One of the two Acting Directors of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is quietly putting his stamp on the agency. Mr. Mulvaney is changing small details like the tag line that appears on CFPB press releases.
Before Mr. Mulvaney showed up the tag line read,
“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is a 21st century agency that helps consumer finance markets work by making rules more effective, by consistently and fairly enforcing those rules, and by empowering consumers to take more control over their economic lives.”
Now the tag line states:
“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is a 21st century agency that helps consumer finance markets work by regularly identifying and addressing outdated, unnecessary or unduly burdensome regulations, by making rules more effective, by consistently enforcing federal consumer financial law and by empowering consumers to take more control over their economic lives.”
Clearly the emphasis has shifted from enforcing the rules to “identifying and addressing outdated, unnecessary or unduly burdensome regulations.”
The current system attempts to slow down the bad guys by burdening the whole industry with heavy regulation. The new CFPB is clearly about eliminating regulations, but will they protect consumers from companies that do not follow the rules?
We will continue to track what they say and watch what they do.
