ACA International advocates for engaged and informed policymaking from the CFPB and Congress.
2/5/2020 12:00
Through outreach and a letter to the House Financial Services Committee, ACA International is asking the CFPB and Congress to work together to protect both consumers and small businesses from flawed policymaking in the year ahead.
“ACA members support the stated mission of the CFPB to protect consumers in the financial services marketplace. However, since its inception, we have been disappointed when in many instances the bureau has failed to fulfill its statutory mission and obligations that require it to make markets for consumer financial products and services work in a fair, transparent, and competitive manner,” said ACA CEO Mark Neeb in the letter to U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., in advance of the Feb. 6 House Financial Services Committee hearing “Protecting Consumers or Allowing Consumer Abuse? A Semi-Annual Review of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau” with testimony from Director Kathy Kraninger.
Kraninger will testify during the hearing, beginning at 9 a.m. Central, for the second time since the bureau’s proposed rule for the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act—a prominent topic on the Hill last year—was released.
Likely to prompt discussion on the committee, chaired by Waters, during its Feb. 6 hearing with Kraninger will be the bureau’s recent policy statement on the use of Unfair, Deceptive, or Abusive Acts or Practices (UDAAP) in CFPB supervision and enforcement actions.
The statement provides much-needed clarity and guidance for the industry, which ACA advocated for in communications with Kraninger, but critics say it scales back on the bureau’s role to protect consumers.
ACA’s letter highlights the need for more transparency and due process in CFPB enforcement and supervision processes and the UDAAP policy statement as a step in the right direction for limiting rulemaking by enforcement.
“Businesses in the financial services industry can best contribute to a functioning credit-based economy and serve consumers, when the CFPB is acting in a transparent way and not engaging in rulemaking by enforcement,” Neeb said. “ACA applauds the bureau’s recent policy statement as a step in the right direction for limiting rulemaking by enforcement which stalls innovation and creates unclear risks that are impossible to plan for from a compliance perspective.”
ACA also hopes for an update on the proposed debt collection rulemaking through the committee’s discussion with Kraninger. In her prepared testimony, Kraninger said the bureau is currently reviewing the comments. More than 14,000 comments came in before the deadline in September 2019.
ACA also addresses these critical points in its letter:
- ACA supports Congress’s directive in the Dodd-Frank Act for the CFPB to provide regulations for the FDCPA. As outlined in ACA’s extensive comments on the rule, in several parts of its proposal the bureau attempts to add new requirements that impose significant burdens on the accounts receivable management industry without any quantitative evidence of consumer harm in those areas. Moreover, certain solutions in search of problems lack empirical data to support their proposals such as certain arbitrary limitations on communications.
- The CFPB’s complaint database paints an inaccurate portrait of the debt collection industry. The bureau has on numerous occasions reported that the debt collection industry receives a high number of complaints. However, in this reporting the Bureau continues to fail to contextualize the number of complaints as compared to the large number of contacts the debt collection industry makes to consumers over a given year
- Congressional solutions proposed by the House Financial Services Committee this Congress are in large part woefully flawed. ACA is hopeful that Congress can put partisan views aside and work together with the CFPB to make common-sense reforms to the outdated FDCPA. As noted, under President Barack Obama’s Administration the Dodd-Frank Act provided the CFPB with rulemaking authority for the debt collection industry. However, throughout the CFPB’s rulemaking process we have seen wildly partisan-driven swings from Congress when addressing these issues.
Read the complete letter from Neeb and view our archive of letters and comments through the Advocacy Resource Center.
ACA will engage with Congress on the Feb. 6 proceedings and a similar hearing and semiannual review before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee will be scheduled as well. Watch for coverage of the Feb. 6 hearing in ACA Daily.
Related Content from ACA International:
Under the Microscope: CFPB’s Kraninger Testifies Before House Committee