Mick Mulvaney, the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), proposed four statutory changes to the bureau in his semi-annual report to Congress this week.
One of his recommendations is to fund the CFPB through Congressional appropriations, while another is to require legislative approval of major rules. Mulvaney’s third recommendation is to ensure that the CFPB director answers to the president, while the fourth is to create an independent inspector general for the CFPB.
The CFPB was created via the Dodd-Frank Act in response to the financial crisis as an independent agency to protect consumers in the financial sector. The agency writes and enforces rules financial institutions, monitors markets, and tracks consumer complaints.
“The bureau is far too powerful, with precious little oversight of its activities,” Mulvaney said. “The power wielded by the director of the bureau could all too easily be used to harm consumers, destroy businesses, or arbitrarily remake American financial markets. I’m requesting that Congress make four changes to the law to establish meaningful accountability for the bureau. I look forward to discussing these changes with Congressional members.”
The report, which covers the period from Oct. 1, 2016, to Sept. 30, 2017, noted that the bureau handled approximately 317,200 consumer complaints last year. Debt collection (27 percent) and credit reporting (27 percent) garnered the most complaints, while 13 percent of the complaints were related to mortgages. Companies responded to approximately 93 percent of complaints sent to them for response during the period.