Under new management, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau this week took action that may be a harbinger of a more laissez-faire approach to regulatory enforcement.
Despite industry worries that the struggle over the leadership of the Consumer Financial Protec-tion Bureau might derail congressional efforts to enact regulatory relief legislation, the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee did just that this week, with 16 ayes prevailing over seven nays.
Guaranteed Rate is accusing a former top executive of raiding talent at the Chicago-based firm by planning a mass exodus of key employees for a newly launched competitor across town. But Joseph Caltabiano, the company’s former senior vice president of mortgage lending, denies the allegations.
Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, President Trump’s choice to serve as acting director of the CFPB, assumed control of the agency Monday, Nov. 27, 2017, and quickly established a dramatically different direction for the agency, one far less hostile to the financial services industry. In his first press conference as acting director, one week ago, Mulvaney shook things up while trying to strike a more balanced approach, one far less hostile towards the financial services community. “This is an ordinary course of business in Washington, DC. What you’re witnessing today at the CFPB happens at every single agency every couple of years, which is a transition,” he said. [Includes a timeline chart.]
During his first press conference as acting director of the CFPB, Mick Mulvaney spelled out the charge he was given in taking control of the agency, and elaborated upon his view of the bureau as a regulatory entity that has overstepped its bounds. “[President Trump] wants me to fix it,” Mulvaney began. “He wants me to get it back to the point where it can protect people without trampling on capitalism, without choking off the access to financial services that are so critical to so many folks.” He then cited the “many folks who are in the lower and middle classes, folks who are trying to start their own businesses, people who are trying to break out, people who are ...