CEI Hopes New Director of Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection Will Continue Tough-But-Fair Approach to Regulation

Competitive Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow John Berlau praised today’s Senate confirmation of President Trump’s nominee to head the powerful Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (BCFP) and expressed hope that the Bureau’s recent “tough but fair” approach to financial regulation will continue.

Statement by John Berlau:

The Competitive Enterprise Institute congratulates Kathleen Kraninger on her confirmation as new director of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection and commends Mick Mulvaney’s service as Acting Director of the BCFP, formerly known as the CFPB.

In the year that Mulvaney headed the BCFP, he made it responsive to consumers rather than to the bureaucrats and busybodies who thought they knew best and wanted to dictate consumers’ financial choices. Under his tenure, the BCFP both punished wrongdoers and ensured there was due process for regulated companies. This was in sharp contrast to Mulvaney’s predecessor, Richard Cordray, under whose tenure the bureau arbitrarily and retroactively applied regulatory punishments against certain financial firms without due process.

We believe Kraninger will continue the Bureau’s new direction of being tough but fair and promoting consumer choice. Her statements during the confirmation hearing indicated she values a thorough and fact-driven rulemaking process and wants to help bring down the cost of consumer credit by expanding choice and competition.

We also hope Congress will take Kraninger up on her offer to make the BCFP more accountable by making its budget subject to congressional appropriations and its director subject to presidential removal. Government entities must be answerable to the American people, no matter what political party controls the executive and legislative branches of government.

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John Berlau

Competitive Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow John Berlau praised today’s Senate confirmation of President Trump’s nominee to head the powerful Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (BCFP) and expressed hope that the Bureau’s recent “tough but fair” approach to financial regulation will continue.