Abolish Financial Protection Bureau Before it Does More Harm

The Hill covers CEI’s “Case against the Financial Protection Bureau” by Iain Murray.

With each passing week, the speculation grows that the activist liberal head of the Consumer Financial Protection Board (CFPB), Richard Cordray, will jump into the race for governor of my home state of Ohio.

I’m confident that the great people of Ohio will reject his radical, liberal philosophy and keep him out of the governor’s mansion. However, what is truly concerning to me is that Director Cordray is only using the bureau to protect his own political interests as he continues to use the agency’s limitless power to shore up support among his trial lawyer friends ahead of his expected run for governor.

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A few weeks ago, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) released a report that details numerous harmful regulations and actions by the agency, which is virtually unaccountable to Congress.

“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was set up under the Dodd-Frank act of 2010 in violation of constitutional norms ostensibly to protect consumers from bad actors in the banking and financial services industry, but the agency is instead actively harming consumers, pressing ahead with regulations even when the benefit to consumers is likely to be outweighed by the costs,” Ian Murray, the report’s author, wrote.

CEI urges not only for serious reform of the CFPB, but also entertains a legislative solution to abolish this rogue agency once and for all. As the group explains, the CFPB’s “one-size-fits-all approach” to rules impacting financial services companies doesn’t take into account the unique financial needs of a “large and diverse society.”

Read the full article at The Hill.