Consumer Law

Daniel Carpenter's Times Op-Ed on Why the CFPA Should Not be in the Fed

By Jeff Sovern

Here.  Excerpts:

The Fed has a long and largely undistinguished history of consumer protection. During the 1970s, officials at the Fed opposed the Community Reinvestment Act, which attacked home lending discrimination, and the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, which compelled banks to reveal their lending patterns.

When these became law, the Fed limply enforced them; it gave the same treatment to the Home Ownership Equity Protection Act, passed in 1994.

* * *

Embedding consumer protection in the Fed could be worse than imperfect. By giving the imprimatur of a consumer protection office to an agency that has long resisted consumer protection, Congress risks creating a false sense of security among policymakers and the public. The Fed?s politically reactive posture is the exact opposite of the sustained care that consumer financial protection demands.

Full post as published by CL&P Blog on March 18, 2010 (boomark / email).