This week the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) independent funding structures are unconstitutional.

“For more than a decade, the CFPB has protected consumers from harmful and predatory practices across marketplaces and served as the only financial agency specifically focused on consumers,” said Rachel Gittleman, CFA’s Financial Services Outreach Manager. “This ruling calls into question the CFPB’s ability to ensure that debt collectors, payday lenders, mortgage and student loan servicers, credit and tenant reporting agencies, and big banks do not engage in unfair, deceptive or abusive acts and practices, especially unlawful discrimination, or violate the numerous consumer protection laws it regulates. Like other federal financial regulators, the CFPB’s independent structure is key to insulating it from political sway and gamesmanship, and integral to the CFPB’s fight to ensure the financial marketplace is equitable, fair, transparent, and competitive for all American consumers. This case was wrongly decided and it should be reversed on appeal.”