The latest salvo by the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — proposing in the agency's semi-annual report that all CFPB rules be subject to congressional approval — left many observers stumped if not outraged.
As part of a larger regulatory relief effort, regulators have raised the dollar-amount threshold for commercial real estate transactions that require a formal appraisal.
Acting Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Mick Mulvaney proposed dramatic curbs to his agency's power in a report Monday, including a recommendation that all CFPB rules must be approved by Congress.
Burdensome regulation has made it hard for community institutions to operate alongside bigger rivals, leaving consumers with less choice and more expensive banking options.
One purpose of the Senate bill was for small banks to rein in skyrocketing costs, but some bankers question whether the changes will save them money, and adapting to the reforms may even increase spending.
In his last major speech as the agency’s No. 2, Thomas Hoenig said it would be a “serious policy mistake” to relax measures such as the supplementary leverage ratio, but he was more open to regulatory relief in other areas.
The biggest legacy of the current regulatory relief effort may be the increasing focus on whether organizing banks in supervisory buckets by asset size makes sense. Yet the bill deals with just one of the two big asset thresholds in the law.
The regulatory relief bill frees some regional banks from the tough supervision reserved for larger companies, but regulators still can subject them to onerous requirements.
The information collection effort is consistent with acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney's efforts to set the agency on a more pro-industry, anti-enforcement course.
While regulatory relief legislation would raise the asset threshold for “systemically important” banks, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank could still apply prudential scrutiny to banks below that new cutoff.
