CFPB requests 14% increase for FY 2020

Federal Issues CFPB Budget Supervision Enforcement Consumer Education Disclosures

In February, CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger submitted a budget proposal seeking, among other things, a 13.7 percent increase for fiscal year (FY) 2020. Notably, the increase runs counter to President Trump’s FY 2019 and FY 2020 budgets, which sought budget cuts for the CFPB of $147 million and $23 million respectively (with a proposed $110 million budget cut for FY 2021). According to the Bureau’s budget proposal, the increase reflects costs associated with “recently approved staffing targets after the Bureau ended the hiring freeze previously in place since FY 2018 as well as additional funding for new initiatives in pursuit of the Bureau’s mission and strategic goals.” Included in these goals are budget increases to support (i) additional consumer education initiatives; (ii) “additional qualitative disclosure testing to evaluate consumer usability” related to the model validation notices that are currently under development as part of the Bureau’s proposed debt collection rule; (iii) field and economic laboratory studies intended to improve the understanding of issues related to consumer financial disclosures; (iv) processing and analyzing consumer complaints; and (v) “increased staffing levels in the Supervision, Enforcement, and Fair Lending program responsible for conducting examination activities.”