Mulvaney Applauds Finance Reform Legislation

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) Acting Director Mick Mulvaney praised members of Congress after President Donald Trump signed the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act into law on Thursday (May 24).

“I applaud my former colleagues in Congress for coming together to pass the most significant financial reform legislation in recent history,” said Mick Mulvaney in a statement. “This new law will improve consumers’ access to credit, reduce regulatory burdens on credit unions and community banks and fuel economic growth and job creation across the nation.”

Trump signed into law a measure that loosens key restraints for banks imposed after the 2008 financial crisis. The new bill eases regulations for banks below $250 billion in assets and exempts small community banks from a variety of stricter rules and oversight established by the Dodd-Frank law.

“The legislation I’m signing today rolls back the crippling Dodd-Frank regulations that are crushing small banks,” Trump said at the bill signing, according to Reuters.

After being appointed as the CFPB’s acting director by Trump last year, Mulvaney called the agency “all too powerful,” writing that the Dodd-Frank Act, by creating a leadership hierarchy that has a single head, leaves the potential for an abuse of power.

Some of the changes Mulvaney has looked to make during his time at the agency is changing the Qualified Mortgage rule, ending the functions of the student lending office (except for consumer education) and shutting down the public complaint database.

“As acting director of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, I am pleased to see the long-overdue reforms to the regulations governing mortgage lending,” said Mulvaney. “These changes will allow community banks and credit unions to focus on making prudent loans to prospective homebuyers without being tied up in expensive and excessive red tape. I stand ready to work with Congress and the rest of the administration to implement these new reforms that will promote a brighter, more prosperous future.”