Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

When 43 U.S. Senators tell the President that they are not happy with something, we think that’s significant in and of itself. When the 43 Senators are all Republicans, and when they tell the President, a Democrat, that they are not happy with the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, we think that very well may mean that the Bureau is dead.
 

One might think that, given the Republican Party’s antipathy to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – it was, after all, an idea from the mind of Elizabeth Warren, who now is locked in a battle for the “Kennedy” seat held by Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown – the upcoming Presidential election would lead people to delay joining the Bureau until after the election is decided.

Elizabeth Warren, who is locked in an election year fight with incumbent Senator Scott Brown to see who will represent Massachusetts for the next six years, is bringing out the big guns.
 
At the one year anniversary of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Warren is promoting both herself, as the person who proposed the idea that became the Bureau, as well as her connection to Senator Ted Kennedy.
 

We’re sure that the folks at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau would be interested in the fact that the Center for Plain Language has given an award for the most confusing language to a bank.
 

It is quite well settled law that privileged materials shared by banks with federal banking agencies remain privileged as to all other parties. The American Bar Association is concerned, however, that the rule may not apply to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It therefore is suggesting that Congress update the relevant statutes, 12 U.S.C. § 1828(x) and 12 U.S.C.

The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy hosted a debate on the constitutionality of President Obama’s recent "recess" appointments – including his appointment of Richard Cordray to direct the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Four lawyers – Walter Dellinger, O'Melveny & Myers; Douglas Kmiec, Pepperdine University School of Law; David Rivkin, Baker & Hostetler; and Morton Rosenberg, The Constitution Proj

Notwithstanding President Obama’s recess appointment of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Congress is considering ways to alter the Bureau's structure, which had been established in Dodd-Frank. Today, the American Bankers Association testified before the House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, addressing measures that the ABA says would increase accountability at the Bureau. 

Elizabeth Warren developed the concept for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, but President Obama thought she was too toxic to be nominated for Director (instead deciding to take the heat for a recess appointment of former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray for the position).

Until now, a significant part of the mortgage market, which includes independent lenders, brokers, servicers, and others unaffiliated with banks and depository institutions, has not been subject to federal supervision. This “nonbank” mortgage sector included many of the largest subprime lenders during the housing bubble.

That did not take long. With Richard Cordray’s recess appointment as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Bureau is now moving full speed ahead.