Mulvaney Makes Way for More Consumer Rip-Offs
Feb. 1, 2018
Mulvaney Makes Way for More Consumer Rip-Offs
Statement of Lisa Gilbert, Vice President of Legislative Affairs, Public Citizen
Note: The Trump administration today gutted the enforcement powers of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) Office of Fair Lending and Equal Opportunity in lending discrimination cases. That office will be moved inside the office of the director and will no longer have responsibility for enforcement and day-to-day oversight of companies.
The Office of Fair Lending and Equal Opportunity has been crucial in protecting consumers, especially people of color and low-income borrowers. Gutting the office’s enforcement powers is the latest example of interim CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney unashamedly working on behalf of big banks and predatory lenders instead of consumers.
Congress gave the CFPB the authority to protect consumers from lending discrimination. By giving up these powers, Mulvaney is acting as an agent of exactly the kind of bank-led sabotage that Congress aimed to prevent by making the consumer bureau an independent agency.
These kinds of changes should not be made by an interim director, especially not one who is loyal to the White House, rather than the CFPB’s mission. The White House must immediately nominate a full-time, independent director to lead the agency.
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