'Academy Award for worst policy idea of 2018': Comments of the week
May 3, 2018 10:00 PM
dragonstock - stock.adobe.com
Readers applaud acting Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Mick Mulvaney’s cost-cutting ideas, slam recent calls for postal banking, opine on banks limiting their business with firearms dealers and more.
fotolia
On Senate Banking Committee members highlighting consumer complaints against Equifax as an example of why the CFPB's public database is necessary:
“Oh brother. I wonder how many consumers even know about the complaint database. How come the Senators aren't asking the OCC, FDIC and Fed to make their complaints public too? Are the Senators suggesting that the CFPB isn't holding companies accountable because complaints are not available to the public?”
Related:Equifax breach shows need for public CFPB complaints: Dem senators
Related:
Zach Gibson/Bloomberg
On Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., unveiling new legislation to create a postal banking system:
“This wins the Academy Award for worst policy idea of 2018! Anyone who knows anything factual about the current status of the floundering Postal Service and the dramatic decline in the number of banks and credit unions would know we don't need the government getting in this mix.”
Related:Postal banking is back on the table. Here's why that matters
Related:
goir - Fotolia
Another reader reacts to Gillibrand's postal banking bill:
“Banking is not a turnkey business. Offering deposit and credit products requires knowledge, infrastructure and discernment of the mission. An uneven effort to build a postal banking small loan program will fail, even as it also fails to displace PDLs.”
Related:Gillibrand aims to 'wipe out' payday lenders with postal banking bill
Related:
Tomasz Zajda - stock.adobe.com
On the impending repeal of an Obama-era policy to crack down on discrimination in auto lending:
“Every regulatory attorney knows ‘guidance’ does not carry the enforceable weight that a statute or regulation does. There were and still are real issues in auto lending. Auto loans represent a major category of consumer debt and female and minority borrowers are getting taken way too often. Congress is doing the wrong thing in order to protect campaign contributions, yet again. CFPB stood up against this corruption and lobbyists cried foul to their Congressional puppets.”
Related:CFPB auto-loan crackdown crumbled long before Senate stepped in
Related:
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
On CFPB officials considering moving employees to the basement:
“Most companies have employees in open cubicles. CFPB employees should be subject to the same cost cutting measures as everyone else. I disagree with the idea that the CFPB should spend whatever taxpayer money it can get. Also, most new leaders in any company bring in their own people and staff changes. This is true everywhere and the CFPB employees don't have the right to be protected against any change; no one else is protected.”
Related:The real reason Mulvaney wants CFPB employees in the basement
Related:
More reaction to CFPB leadership's cost-cutting strategies:
“Mulvaney is on his way to hero status with the overwhelming majority of bankers in America."
Related:The real reason Mulvaney wants CFPB employees in the basement
Related:
George Frey/Bloomberg
On a group of Democratic senators calling on more banks to limit their business with firearms dealers:
“I wonder how folks would react if banks were pressured to stop banking Planned Parenthood, abortion clinics or other politically charged industries?”
Related:Democratic senators urge more banks to crack down on gun sellers
Related:
Zach Gibson/Bloomberg
Another reader reacts to Democratic calls on banks to change their handling of gun sales:
"Good for Wells, and shame on Feinstein and her cronies on the left for abusing the influence of their offices. Companies that succumb to this kind of political pressure will find themselves on a slippery slope."
