House GOP Memo Outlines Plans to Limit Dodd-Frank
02/16/17 – Law360 reports that House Republicans aim to drastically reduce the power of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, according to a memo circulating among the committee’s leadership team.
The Feb. 6 memo, circulated to other senior members of the committee and obtained by Law360, provides an outline of the changes that House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, plans to make to his Financial CHOICE Act, legislation introduced last year to rewrite the Dodd-Frank Act.
Under the proposed changes, the CFPB would see itself reduced to a law enforcement agency, like the Federal Trade Commission, and lose its ability to write regulations and supervise banks. The CFPB would also lose its ability to bring claims using the Unfair Deceptive and Abusive Standard that it currently enjoys.
The Bureau would still be led by a single director, but the president could fire the director at will rather than for cause, as is currently the standard.
Along with the significant downgrade to the CFPB, the CHOICE Act 2.0 is expected to eliminate the qualitative review of banks’ capital under the Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review exams carried out by the Federal Reserve. Rather than looking at quality of capital, the Fed would only be able to review banks on a quantitative level, the memo said.