CFPB Asks Congress For Authority To Oversee Military Lending Act Compliance

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has asked the United States Congress for the authority to supervise compliance of the Military Lending Act (MLA), the organization announced on Thursday (Jan. 17). In a statement, CFPB Director Kathleen Kraninger said she asked Congress to grant the organization “clear authority” to oversee the lending and its processes.

“The Bureau is committed to the financial well-being of America’s service members. This commitment includes ensuring that lenders subject to our jurisdiction comply with the Military Lending Act so our service members and their families are provided with the protections of that law,” Kraninger said. “That’s why I have asked Congress to explicitly grant the Bureau authority to conduct examinations, specifically intended to review compliance with the MLA. The requested authority would complement the work the Bureau currently does to enforce the MLA. I was pleased to see legislation proposed recently in the House of Representatives (H.R. 442) that is intended to grant the Bureau such authority. My hope is that bipartisan legislation advances as quickly as possible in the 116th Congress.”

According to the CFPB, the MLA says that qualified recipients can’t be charged an interest rate higher than 36 percent on most types of consumer loans. It applies to active-duty service members — including active guard or active reserve duty — and covered dependents.

The CFPB gave the proposal to the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the vice president, chairs and ranking members of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, as well as the House Committee on Financial Services.

The CFPB’s stated mission is to help “consumer finance markets work by regularly identifying and addressing outdated, unnecessary or unduly burdensome regulations by making rules more effective, by consistently enforcing federal consumer financial law and by empowering consumers to take more control over their economic lives.”