Justice Department Says CFPB Will Be Streamlined, Not Dismantled

Lawyers for the Justice Department have stated that the Trump Administration plans to streamline the CFPB rather than dismantle it according to court filings filed on 2/24. This is contradictory to statements that President Trump has previously made to reporters earlier this month (do you intend to totally eliminate the CFPB, “That was a very important thing to get rid of,”).

According to court filings a streamlined CFPB will continue to:

• Continue to operate its call center and database for consumer complaints
• Produce mortgage data
• Require payments to consumers harmed by corporate misconduct

In early February CFPB was ordered to shut down and employees told to do no work. There were also reports that CFPB was no longer passing along consumer complaints to banks. As part of the streamlined CFPB less office space will be required, with the current lease being cancelled. Union officials have stated that they believe the agency plans to terminate most staff.

I think everybody can agree that regardless of the outcome that this could have been better handled with clearer communication on what changes were being made with no contradictory statements. It’s possible the Trump administration has seen the backlash and legal challenges and decided to make changes base on this. I welcome any change that continues the complaints handling, although it will be difficult to determine if enforcement action is still up to par for some time as these things are usually slow moving.

Please try to keep comments on topic, I suspect we will have to close them after the discussion runs it’s course.