Chopra Reorienting CFPB’s Focus to Competition, Tech, Large Institutions
As anticipated, HFSC’s hearing today with CFPB Director Chopra skidded over a wide range of policy issues. Chairwoman Waters (D-CA) again lauded Mr. Chopra, urging him to prioritize foreclosure protection, consumer-data ownership, fair lending, and bigtech. In unsurprisingly sharp contrast, Ranking Member McHenry (R-NC) castigated the agency’s design, leadership, and agenda. However, the hearing was generally non-confrontational even though Director Chopra announced several significant policy initiatives. These include prioritizing enforcement actions for the largest providers and taking a hard look not only at competitiveness when it comes to bigtech, but also in other arenas. Although he did not indicate any specific initiatives, Mr. Chopra argued that retail-finance interest rates do not appear competitive; if this question is pursued, the Bureau could intervene across an array of disclosure, M&A, and product arenas.