Housing Wire, February 2, 2018: Did Mick Mulvaney just drastically change how the CFPB enforces fair lending laws?
The way the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau enforces fair lending laws could be about to significantly change after CFPB Acting Director Mick Mulvaney reportedly stripped the bureau’s Office of Fair Lending of its enforcement powers.
John Taylor, president and CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, echoed those sentiments.
“The CFPB’s organization chart is the agency’s business, but enforcing consumer protection laws is also the people’s business. I am appalled to see one of the most effective offices within the CFPB stripped of responsibility to stop redlining, predatory lending, and other discriminatory behavior by financial firms,” Taylor said in a statement.
“The whole point of an independent CFPB is to have an agency with authority to enforce consumer protection laws, not just talk about them,” Taylor added. “There is a reason this office was mandated under Dodd-Frank. Some financial firms continue to take advantage of consumers and put them at risk. Without enforcement actions by this agency, it will be much slower and harder to protect consumers and stop abusive and discriminatory practices that should be stopped.”
