CFPB settles FACA dispute over taskforce

Federal Issues Courts CFPB Taskforce Federal Advisory Committee Act

On January 14, the CFPB announced publicly that it settled a lawsuit filed by several consumer advocacy groups against the CFPB, which claimed that the Bureau’s Taskforce on Federal Consumer Financial Law established under former Director Kathy Kraninger was “illegally chartered” and violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). The consumer advocacy groups alleged that the taskforce—established by the Bureau in 2019 to provide recommendations to improve consumer financial laws and regulations—lacks balance, and that the appointed members who “uniformly represent industry views” have worked on behalf of several large financial institutions or work as industry consultants or lawyers. (Covered by InfoBytes here.) Last November, the parties entered a stipulated settlement in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, in which the parties agreed that the Bureau failed to comply with FACA in its establishment and operation of the taskforce. As previously covered by InfoBytes, the stipulated settlement required the Bureau to, among other things, (i) release all taskforce records; (ii) amend the final report to include a disclaimer that the report was produced in violation of FACA; (iii) relocate the taskforce webpage and remove the current version of the report from its website; (iv) issue a press release by January 17, 2022, notifying the public of the settlement agreement; and (v) provide status reports until the Bureau has come into full compliance. In its January 14 press release, in addition to publicly announcing the settlement agreement, the CFPB also reported that all Taskforce records would be made available on the CFPB’s website and that the Bureau had amended the Taskforce’s report to include the requirement disclaimer.