CBA Letter to House Appropriations Subcommittee Requesting CFPB Reform Inclusion to Appropriations Legislation

Dear Chairman Womack and Ranking Member Hoyer:

The Consumer Bankers Association (CBA) respectfully submits this letter for the subcommittee’s consideration of fiscal year 2024 Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) appropriations. CBA is the voice of the retail banking industry whose products and services provide access to credit to millions of consumers and small businesses. Our members operate in all 50 states, serve more than 150 million Americans, and collectively hold two-thirds of the country’s total depository assets.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was created in 2011 by the Dodd-Frank Act and has seen no significant changes to its structure since it became operational. Since its inception, the Bureau has been a political lightning rod, instead of a steady and consistent voice for consumer protection regulation and best practices expected from a world class regulator. Recent actions taken by the Bureau have established new regulatory requirements for banks outside of the rulemaking process required by the Administrative Procedure Act, and the Bureau seeks minimal input from the industry it is responsible for overseeing. This is in stark contrast to the open dialogue that the banking industry experienced with multiple previous CFPB Directors, regardless of party affiliation. Furthermore, the Director’s nearly constant and public attacks on banks erode consumer confidence in the banking system and undermine efforts to bring more consumers into the highly regulated and time-tested depository intuitions the Bureau oversees.

We encourage your subcommittee to include a number of reforms highlighted in this letter that passed the Financial Services Committee in April as part of H.R. 2798, the CFPB Transparency and Accountability Reform Act. These reforms will bring greater accountability and transparency to the Bureau and will ensure proper checks and balances are applied to a regulator with such a broad scope and influence over the financial services marketplace. In particular, we would like to highlight the importance of a bipartisan CFPB commission, reforming the CFPB’s funding mechanism, robust cost-benefit analysis, and an independent Inspector General.

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To read the full letter, please click here.