Waters: Mulvaney is Starving the Consumer Bureau of Resources and Reducing Protections for America’s Consumers

WASHINGTON, D.C. - This week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced it will:

1. Help out predatory payday lenders by reconsidering the sensible and much-needed rule on payday, vehicle title, and certain high-cost installment loans.
   
2. Launch a review of all “activities” of the Consumer Bureau by publishing a series of Requests for Information (RFIs) in the Federal Register. RFIs are a beginning step by federal agencies to make changes to any rules they may have already put into place.
   
3. Withdraw a lawsuit against a group of deceptive payday lenders who allegedly failed to disclose the true cost of loans, which carried interest rates as high as 950 percent a year.
   
4. Request zero dollars in operating funds from the Federal Reserve.
   

In response to these announcements, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services, made the following statement:

“In just two months, as the unlawfully appointed Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Mick Mulvaney has been busy doing everything but protecting hardworking American consumers. He even took it upon himself to rewrite the agency’s mission statement to say that the agency’s mission is to address ‘burdensome regulations.’ This week’s string of announcements, including Mulvaney’s request for zero dollars in operating funds from the Federal Reserve, reveals a clear intention to starve the Consumer Bureau of resources and ultimately dismantle it. These actions send a signal that the Consumer Bureau will no longer vigorously enforce our laws that protect consumers from being ripped off by unscrupulous financial companies.

“The Consumer Bureau was created in response to the 2008 financial crisis and has put $12 billion back into the pockets of 29 million consumers and addressed over 1.2 million complaints about financial institutions since its inception. Under the leadership of Richard Cordray, the Consumer Bureau did an excellent job of protecting the interests of consumers over predatory financial institutions. But Mulvaney is now shamefully working to deconstruct the Consumer Bureau and remove protections for hardworking Americans.”

###