Credit Unions Give CFPB ‘No Confidence’ Vote in CUNA Survey

Credit unions gave the CFPB a resounding “no confidence” vote in a survey released by CUNA on Tuesday.

About two-thirds of the 272 credit union officials responding to the CUNA survey say the agency should be issuing fewer rules, do a better job of aligning policies with the NCUA, conduct more analysis before issuing rules and more narrowly focus rules on bad actors.

CUNA included in the survey in a “White Paper” that provides a now-familiar list of recommendations on how the agency can do a better job.

Acting CFPB director Mick Mulvaney has issued a series of requests for information about how to change agency operations. Former Director Richard Cordray, an Obama Administration nominee, had been particularly aggressive in policing the financial industry.

Mulvaney, on the other hand, has indicated that he is more sympathetic to the financial industry.

“The Bureau should spend less time trying to fix a system that is not broken—and spend more time firmly focusing on bad actors in the marketplace, whose risks pose threats to the financial system,” CUNA said, in the white paper.

In the March survey, which was not a scientific poll with margins of error, CUNA reported that:

• Nearly two-thirds of the credit union officials said they strongly agree that the bureau’s rulemaking process and its engagement with the credit union community should be improved.
• An overwhelming number of credit union officials said the agency should provide more exemptions for credit unions, focus more on the impact it is having on small credit unions and conduct better cost-benefit analyses of its actions.
• Credit unions were adamant that agency rules governing mortgage disclosures, mortgage origination and qualified mortgages be changed.
• At least 90% of the respondents said the agency should do a better job of encouraging innovation and better define what constitutes an “Unfair, Deceptive or Abusive Act or Practice.”
• About 30% of the credit unions responding said the agency is doing an effective job of communicating with the credit union industry.
• About 15% of those responding said the agency is doing an effective job of communicating with credit unions via blogs, social media and websites.

CUNA repeated its call for the agency to exempt credit unions from certain rulemakings.

“If the Bureau spent less time regulating and supervising credit unions, it could spend more time on the abusers of consumers,” CUNA concluded, calling for the CFPB to work more closely with the NCUA.