Mick Mulvaney Calls for ‘Humility’ from Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
“But what about the workers who are laid off as a result?”
Mr. Mulvaney also said that the bureau would introduce more quantitative rigor in determining which companies to target for enforcement, a move sure to be welcomed by banks and financial trade groups
that have complained about the agency’s enforcement approach.
Mr. Mulvaney made clear that under his direction, the consumer bureau would be more reluctant to target companies without overwhelming evidence of wrongdoing and suggested
that the effect on a business should be weighed more heavily when considering cracking down on potential consumer abuses.
He suggested that the agency’s efforts would be focused on areas where consumer complaints are most abundant, saying
a complaint-driven approach would shift focus to areas like debt collection and away from payday lending.
The staff memo comes a week after Mr. Mulvaney made his most significant moves to date at the bureau, requesting no funding for the quarter from the Federal Reserve and freezing a rule drafted by Mr. Cordray
that would have cracked down on the predatory practices of payday lenders
Mr. Mulvaney insisted that he would not shutter the bureau, if only because doing so would be against the law.
