Congress must restrain power of new consumer financial director

The new head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Kathleen Kraninger, will have a unique opportunity to end past abuses against American financial institutions, a big problem when the agency was run by former director Richard Cordray. During that era, the bureau too often used arbitrary and retroactive standards to persecute businesses it disliked and interfere with politically disfavored business practices.

Over the past year after Cordray left, acting director Mick Mulvaney initiated reforms to rein in the bureaucrats and empower consumers, but the problem remains that no presidential appointee can accomplish the most important reforms alone. Congress must take a hard look at the size and scope of the wide ranging powers of the director to oversee and regulate most consumer financial products. Its unilateral decision making authority as a government agency is unlike any other. Congress designed the position that way, but it is time to reevaluate the setup of the bureau.

Read the full article on The Hill.