Finance Industry-Funded Andy Barr Expands His War on the CFPB With a New Bill

In April, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau put out a policy statement defining “abusive conduct” in consumer financial markets, an action that was met with strong pushback from finance industry groups. In comments sent to the agency over the summer, groups representing banks, debt collection companies, consumer lenders and others said that the policy statement does not provide clear regulatory guidance and that they are concerned the agency may be planning to use a “regulation by enforcement” approach to address financial abuse.

Now, one of the finance industry’s top beneficiaries in Congress is launching an effort to rein in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) authority to police abusive conduct. House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy Chairman Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) introduced a bill on Thursday called the “Rectifying Undefined Descriptions of Abusive Act and Practices Act” that would limit the types of actions the CFPB could target for being abusive, as well as require the agency to issue a new rule on abusive acts that abides by its restrictions.