The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, created under the 2010 Dodd-Frank reform law, recently announced that it was restructuring the agency to establish a new office to deal with financial institutions and their trade groups.
The Office of Financial Institutions and Business Liaison will confront criticism that the agency is biased against banks.
"A specific charge of the bureau is to attempt to level the playing field between banks and non-bank entities relative to compliance with federal consumer financial laws," Steve Antonakes, the CFPB's acting deputy director, said last week at an American Bankers Association conference. "Accordingly, we have begun to implement a prioritization framework that allocates our examination, investigation, and fair lending resources across product types. This strategy intentionally moves us away from static examination cycles."
"The new liaison office is designed to ease bankers' concerns that the agency would risk the safety of institutions in order to please consumers," writes American Banker's Rachel Witkowski.
For the full piece see "
