Today is the fifth anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Act and it’s the CFPB’s fourth birthday. Do you feel like celebrating?
The Dodd-Frank Act continues to stir up controversy and is likely to be a topic of much discussion during the upcoming presidential campaigns. By one estimate only 60% of the total Dodd-Frank rules have been completed; the rest will continue to unfold in the coming years.
The Dodd-Frank Act spawned the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It is difficult to judge the effectiveness of the agency’s consumer protection efforts, but, without question, they can crank out a mountain of new regulations.
For such a young agency the CFPB appears to display symptoms often associated with the elderly. They seem confused a lot. On one recent day the CFPB announced in the morning that the TRID rules would not be delayed. Then later the same day they announced a proposal to change the effective date to October 1st. The apparent cause of the delay, an employee forget to provide a required 60-day notice to Congress. A few days later when the actual proposal was published, the effective date changed again to October 3rd.
The agency also seems confused about its identity. Their website still refers to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau or CFPB, but in a number of recent releases the agency refers to itself as the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection or Bureau.
The CFPB will find that America is an accepting place. If they want to change their identity we won’t love them any less as the BCFP than we did as the CFPB.
So CFPB or BCFP enjoy your birthday, and thanks for continuing to make life interesting.
