CFPB complies with settlement agreement in FACA dispute over consumer financial law taskforce

Federal Issues CFPB Courts Taskforce Federal Advisory Committee Act

On March 28, the CFPB filed its final status report detailing measures taken by the agency to remedy the Bureau’s Taskforce on Federal Consumer Financial Law’s stipulated violations of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). As previously covered by InfoBytes, in January the Bureau publicly announced that it settled a lawsuit filed by several consumer advocacy groups against the agency, which claimed that the taskforce was “illegally chartered” and violated FACA. The consumer advocacy groups claimed that the taskforce—which was established by the Bureau in 2019 under former Director Kathy Kraninger to provide recommendations to improve consumer financial laws and regulations—lacked balance, and that appointed members who “uniformly represent industry views” have worked on behalf of several large financial institutions or work as industry consultants or lawyers. Last year, the parties entered a stipulated settlement in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts (covered by InfoBytes here) in which the Bureau agreed to take several measures, including releasing all taskforce records, amending the taskforce’s final report to include a disclaimer that a January 2021 final report (covered by InfoBytes here) was produced in violation of FACA, and providing status reports until the Bureau has come into full compliance. The final status report certified to the court and the consumer advocacy groups that the Bureau has complied in full with the terms of the agreement.