Last week the New York Times reported that a leaked memo drafted by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) detailed plans to weaken the CFPB.
According to the report, plans include allowing the president to replace the CFPB director at any time, limit enforcement authority, reduce the ability to make rules, and repeal the consumer complaint system. Also, perhaps most significantly, he proposes to block the CFPB from being able to use unfair or deceptive acts and practices (UDAAP) as a means of enforcement. This is perhaps the most powerful tool the bureau has because it allows the agency to go after just about any business of any size, whether or not it is specifically defined in its charter.
On Janaury 18 another member of the House Financial Services Committee and cosponsor of The CHOICE Act, Rep. Robert Pittenger (R-N.C.), wrote an article that was published in the Charlotte Observer in which he called Dodd-Frank an “albatross… which has impeded access to capital and credit for small businesses and entrepreneurs.” He offered facts including a decline in the number of community banks from 7,093 in 2010 to 5,521 today. This decline, he says, can be directly attributed to new compliance costs.
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