In an effort to facilitate proactive and transparent dialogue about topics affecting the financial marketplace, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will be hosting a symposia series featuring panels made up of an assortment of industry stakeholders.
The series is conceived as a means to help the CFPB with its policy development process, including possible future rulemakings.
“There are a number of outstanding, challenging issues the bureau is facing – some of which Congress directed us to address,” CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger said in a release. “I believe that the best way to address these issues is with proactive dialogue. The symposia series is building on the approach we took last year in convening experts on access to credit issues and credit invisibles.”
The first symposium in the series focuses on what can be done to clarify the meaning of “abusive” as it pertains to the CFPB’s authority to regulate against unfair, deceptive or abusive acts or practices (UDAAP) under Section 1031 of the Dodd-Frank Act.
Former CFPB acting director Mick Mulvaney stated that the bureau was working on a rule to clarify what constitutes an abusive act or practice during the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) annual convention in October 2018.
“UDAAP is the law, and we continue to supervise for it, and if need be, we will bring UDAAP lawsuits,” Mulvaney said, speaking with MBA President and CEO Robert Broeksmit. “But unfair is fairly well established in the law. Deceptive is fairly well established in the law. Abusive, I don’t think, is. So we’ll have an announcement on some rulemaking on what that term means.”
Other topics to be addressed throughout the series will include discussion about behavioral law and economics, small business loan data collection, disparate impact and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, cost-benefit analysis and consumer-authorized financial data sharing.
“These types of proactive efforts are precisely how we intend to engage,” Kraninger said. “Our symposia series will facilitate a robust discussion by experts on a variety of topics related to the bureau’s mission in a public forum. As the bureau has an open mind on where the process will go, any appropriate next steps would come after the bureau has had time to digest the discussion at the given symposium.”
Kraninger announced that the bureau’s plans to convene the series during her recent speaking engagement at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington D.C.
The bureau did not indicate when it will be providing additional details on dates and panelists for the series. It did not indicate where the series would be held, although it appears the events will be at the CFPB headquarters in Washington.