CFPB Launches Initiative Aimed at Curbing ‘Junk Fees’ Charged by FIs; CUNA, NAFCU Join Groups in Calling it ‘Misguided Effort’

The  Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) said it has launched an initiative to “save households billions of dollars a year by reducing exploitative junk fees charged by banks and financial companies.”

But the announcement was quickly met by pushback from CUNA and NAFCU, which joined with the American Bankers Association (ABA), Bank Policy Institute (BPI), the Consumer Bankers Association (CBA), Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) and the Financial Services Forum (FSF) in issuing a joint statement the CFPB’s request for information on consumer account fees. 

"The CFPB's new Request for Information on fees is a misguided effort that paints a distorted and misleading picture of our country's highly competitive financial services marketplace,” the trade groups said in a joint statement. “Multiple federal laws and the CFPB's own rules already require banks, credit unions and other providers of consumer financial services to disclose terms and fees in a clear and conspicuous manner, and our members do so each and every day. Consumers in this country know they have a wide range of choices when it comes to financial services products, and those businesses compete every day, including on fees. We look forward to responding to this Request for Information with facts and perspective sadly lacking from today's announcement." 

In making its announcement, the Bureau said it is now seeking public input to help shape its rulemaking and guidance agenda, as well as its enforcement priorities in the coming months and years. 

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Related: CFPB Issues RFI on Financial Product Fees