On June 12, 2017, the U.S. Department of the Treasury released a report detailing recommendations on how to improve the financial system, including potential reforms to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The recommendations included a repeal of the CFPB's authority to supervise large banks, as well as other financial firms, including nonbank mortgage lenders and servicers, payday lenders, debt collectors, and credit reporting agencies. It would also remove the public's access to consumer complaint data.

Rohit Chopra, Senior Fellow at the Consumer Federation of America and former Assistant Director of the CFPB, made the following statement:

"There seems to be amnesia about the subprime mortgage crisis and the Great Recession. Repealing oversight over big financial firms will do little to help consumers, community banks, or the economy."

Barry Zigas, Director of Housing Policy at Consumer Federation of America, made the following statement:

“Treasury’s plan would weaken key provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act that were adopted in order to protect consumers from abusive and predatory practices in the mortgage market. While we agree that mortgage credit is unnecessarily tight, we disagree strongly with Treasury's apparent conclusion that this is the consequence of important regulatory safeguards that were put in place by the Dodd-Frank Act. In addition, the proposal to consider eliminating public dissemination of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act information would be a huge setback for transparency in the mortgage markets and hinder the ability of academics, other researchers and public interest advocates to understand and influence patterns of mortgage lending throughout the country.”

Rachel Weintraub, Legislative Director and General Counsel at Consumer Federation of America stated:

“This report from the Department of Treasury supports weakening, rolling back and limiting critical consumer protections. This is entirely the wrong approach to ensuring that our financial system is more fair.”

Contact: Rohit Chopra, 202-939-1018; Barry Zigas, 202-679-0169; Rachel Weintraub, 202-939-1012

The Consumer Federation of America is an association of more than 250 non-profit consumer groups that, since 1968, has sought to advance the consumer interest through research, education, and advocacy.