Photo: Gage Skidmore
Mick Mulvaney, acting director Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, wants to dismantle the watchdog agency that has restored fairness and competition in the marketplace after the economic collapse 10 years ago leading to the Great Recession.
The bureau has taken more than 180 legal actions against companies such as Wells Fargo and payday lenders, processed more than 1 million consumer complaints, and returned $12 billion to more than 26 million consumers.
In Mulvaney first semi-annual report issued Monday, he makes four recommendations. The first is to fund the bureau through congressional appropriations. The second is to require legislative approval of major rules. His third recommendation is to ensure that the director answers to the president in the exercise of executive authority. And the fourth is to create an independent inspector general for the bureau.
“As a member of Congress, Mick Mulvaney voted to outright get rid of the consumer bureau,” said Mike Litt, consumer campaign director for U.S. PIRG, a consumer advocacy organization. “Now he is using his platform as acting director to promote his own agenda over the agency’s mission. He wants to take away the bureau’s independence and then make it harder for it to do its job.”
If Mulvaney recommendations are carried out, it would stop the agency from protecting consumers and prevent it from being effective in the future, said Litt.
“These are, simply put, attacks against the agency’s independence from Wall Street and industry pressure,” he said. “Mr. Mulvaney wants the consumer bureau to be the only banking regulator that has its budget controlled by Congress. Then, he wants it to be the only agency of any sort that has to get its major rules approved by Congress.”
Congress is notorious for its dependence on financial sector campaign contributions, Litt said. He questions how many consumer protections Congress would approve, how much money would Congress allocate for the watchdog agency, and whether a future director who believes in the agency’s mission could be effective if the president can fire him or her without cause.
The report covers the bureau’s work from April 1, 2017, to Sept. 30, 2017, the period before the president appointed Mulvaney as acting director. The bureau’s enforcement work included actions taken against illegal practices in mortgage servicing, student loan servicing, credit reporting, and debt collection.
From Oct. 1, 2016, to Sept. 30, 2017, the bureau handled about 317,200 consumer complaints. The most-complained-about products or services were debt collection at 27 percent, credit reporting at 27 percent, and mortgages at 13 percent. About 80 percent of consumer complaints were submitted through the bureau’s website. Companies responded to about 93 percent of complaints sent to them for response during the timeframe.
