CFPB taskforce releases recommendations for modernizing consumer financial marketplace

Federal Issues CFPB Agency Rule-Making & Guidance Consumer Finance Consumer Protection Fintech OCC Bank Regulatory

On January 5, the CFPB Taskforce on Federal Consumer Financial Law released a two volume report with approximately 100 recommendations on ways the CFPB, Congress, and state and federal regulators can improve and modernize the legal and regulatory environment for the consumer financial services market. The report is the end-product of a request for information issued by the taskforce last March (covered by InfoBytes here). The report’s first volume provides a historical and economic overview of the legal and regulatory landscape for consumer finance, and explores issues related to consumer financial protection, competition, innovation, and financial inclusion. The second volume outlines more than 100 proposed recommendations for strengthening consumer protections and maintaining competition in the financial marketplace. Among these are recommendations related to the regulation of non-banks and fintech companies, including:

• Recommending that Congress either (i) “authorize the Bureau to issue licenses to non-depository institutions that provide lending, money transmission, and payments services,” with licenses “provid[ing] that these institutions are governed by the regulations of their home states, even when providing services to consumers located in other states,” or (ii) “clarify that the OCC has the authority to issue charters to non-depositories engaged in lending, money transmissions, or payment services.” Acting Comptroller of the Currency, Brian P. Brooks released a statement the next day endorsing the need for federal charters for fintech companies, but stressed that the OCC, not the Bureau, should be responsible for granting national charters;
• Identifying and addressing competitive barriers and making appropriate recommendations to policymakers and regulators for expanding access to the payments systems by non-bank providers;
• Recommending that the Bureau weigh the costs and benefits of preempting state law where potential conflicts “can impede provision of valuable products and services, such as the regulation of [fintech] companies engaged in money transmission”; and
• Ensuring that fintech companies with multistate operations are subject to a single set of laws to promote consistency, reducing unnecessary regulatory costs, and promoting competition.

The taskforce further recommends that the Bureau establish an independent review of its regulatory cost-benefit analyses, and calls for increased regulatory coordination between the Bureau and other federal and state regulators. Other recommendations address, among other things, the use of alternative data; suggested changes to the Bureau’s internal organization; competition in the consumer financial marketplace, including with respect to the cost of credit, the effect and burden of state licensure requirements, and settlement servicing prices; consumer credit reporting, including clarifying the obligations of credit reporting agencies and furnishers with respect to dispute investigations; consumer empowerment and education; equal access to credit and financial inclusion; disclosure requirements; electronic signatures and document requirements; disparate impact; privacy; small dollar credit; and enforcement and supervision.