CFPB calls on other agencies to work in lockstep

The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) said on Monday that it will start distributing Consumer Finance Protection cyclicals to other agencies and enforcers. The CFPB hopes the documentation can create more consistent consumer finance enforcement across the U.S. regulatory landscape.

Why should we care?
This step is the latest by CFPB Director Rohit Chopra to establish the Bureau as a leading enforcement body in the U.S. “Consistency is… imperative to creating a level playing field between companies that compete in the same market but are subject to the jurisdiction of different enforcers,” Chopra said. These cyclicals may encourage other relevant U.S. regulators—including the FDIC, NCUA, and Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve—to follow the CFPB’s lead, creating a bureaucratic playing field in which some agencies are ‘more equal than others.’ To hedge criticism or misinterpretation, CFPB clarified that this new documentation is not designed to impede on the authority of other agencies, but instead to create a more coordinated response to financial developments. If these cyclicals are received positively by other government players, then we may expect Chopra and the Bureau to play ringleader in the consumer finance space even more than before, and to (subtly) deploy the resources of other agencies to carry out its regulatory ambitions.