Once Confirmed, League Ready to Work With New CFPB Director

Senate Democrats moved one step closer late Tuesday to finally approving the Biden administration's nomination of Rohit Chopra as permanent director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

“Once confirmed, we look forward to working with Director Chopra on the regulatory issues that matter to our member credit unions,” noted League President/CEO Carrie Hunt. “The agency has a full agenda, including new proposals such as the small-business data collection proposal, possibly revisiting rules to restrict payday lending and rework debt collection, plus other initiatives on fintech, all of which directly affect credit unions or the marketplace in which we operate.”

Many expect the agency under Chopra to look closely at whether mortgage servicers followed the Coronavirus, Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. The CFPB has signaled that servicers must work with borrowers on loss mitigation and hew to the law in not reporting delinquencies to credit bureaus.

Many in the industry have already cited an increase in the number of investigations and enforcement actions since the Biden Administration took control of the CFPB.

“We’ll need to carefully watch how enforcement is handled at CFPB,” noted Hunt. “I’m certain we can expect bigger penalties and a focus on the industry’s pandemic response.”

Chopra, a former student loan ombudsman at the CFPB and current member of the Federal Trade Commission, underwent a hearing in the Senate Banking Committee to examine his nomination March 2 alongside Gary Gensler, who has since been confirmed as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission.