Bringing Consumer Protection Back: A Semi-Annual Review of the Consumer Financial...(EventID=114189)

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Connect with the House Financial Services Committee Get the latest news: https://financialservices.house.gov/ Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HouseFinancialCmte Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/FSCDems ___________________________________ On Wednesday, October 27, 2021, at 10:00 a.m. (ET) full Committee Chairwoman Waters and Ranking Member McHenry will host a virtual hearing entitled, “Bringing Consumer Protection Back: A Semi-Annual Review of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau." - - - - - - - - Witnesses for this one-panel hearing will be: • The Honorable Rohit Chopra, Director, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Overview Pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (DoddFrank Act), the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is required to testify before the Committee on its semi-annual report. The Dodd-Frank Act specifies nine items that must be included in CFPB’s semi-annual report to Congress: (1) a discussion of the significant problems faced by consumers in shopping for or obtaining consumer financial products or services; (2) a justification of the budget request of the previous year; (3) a list of the significant rules and orders adopted by the CFPB, as well as other significant initiatives conducted by the agency, during the preceding year and the plan of the agency for rules, orders, or other initiatives to be undertaken during the upcoming period; (4) an analysis of complaints about consumer financial products or services that the CFPB has received and collected in its central database on complaints during the preceding year; (5) a list, with a brief statement of the issues, of the public supervisory and enforcement actions to which the agency was a party during the preceding year; (6) the actions taken regarding rules, orders, and supervisory actions with respect to covered persons which are not credit unions or depository institutions; (7) an assessment of significant actions by State attorneys general or State regulators relating to Federal consumer financial law; (8) an analysis of the efforts of the CFPB to fulfill the fair lending mission of the agency; and, (9) an analysis of the efforts of the CFPB to increase workforce and contracting diversity consistent with the procedures established by its Office of Minority and Women Inclusion. The most recent semi-annual report issued by CFPB was published on October 8, 2021, which covers agency activity from October 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021. This memo summarizes the CFPB’s most recent report and other activities since July 2020, when former CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger testified before the Committee. On September 30, 2021, the U.S. Senate confirmed Rohit Chopra to be the CFPB’s third permanent director. Prior to his confirmation, Mr. Chopra had served as a Commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission since 2018. Mr. Chopra previously served at the CFPB from 2010 to 2015, where he led the agency’s efforts on student lending issues. Background In response to the 2007-2009 financial crisis caused in part by a period of unchecked and rampant predatory lending, Congress created a strong and independent federal agency with the ability to better protect consumers from unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices in the financial marketplace. Title X of the Dodd-Frank Act created the CFPB as an independent agency within the Federal Reserve System.In establishing the CFPB, Congress explicitly laid out in statute various mandates and outlined the agency’s purpose, objectives, and functions. Since opening its doors in 2011, the CFPB has investigated and uncovered egregious and illegal conduct in the financial marketplace, including discriminatory and predatory products and services offered to consumers. The agency has received over 3.3 million consumer complaints with a 98 percent timely response rate by financial firms to those complaints. The CFPB has returned over $13.4 billion to over 175 million consumers that were harmed by bad actors. The CFPB has also issued numerous rulemakings since its creation related to consumer protection. In addition, the CFPB performs research on various consumer financial products and services, and it provides free resources to the public to better understand these financial products and services, as well as their rights and protections afforded them under the law. Rulemaking Developments Mortgage Servicing On April 5, 2021 the CFPB announced a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) intended to help protect homeowners impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic crisis from avoidable foreclosures as the emergency federal foreclosure protections were set to expire on July 31, 2021. On June 28, 2021, the CFPB finalized this rule, and the rule went into effect on August 31, 2021. The rule requires mortgage servicers to offer streamlined loan... Hearing page: https://financialservices.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=408560