The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has started a number of investigations against companies under acting director Mick Mulvaney, a bureau official said Tuesday, news that could allay Democratic fears that the conservative Republican has stopped policing markets.
“We’ve not changed any of the policies on supervision, enforcement, sue/settle, lawsuits,” Mulvaney told reporters Tuesday at the agency.
Democratic lawmakers have grilled Mulvaney about whether he has actually started new investigations into or lawsuits against banks and other financial institutions since taking over, on an acting basis, from Richard Cordray, an Obama appointee. At the same time, they’ve noted, he has dismissed at least one high-profile suit, against a payday lender, raising fears about his intentions for enforcement in general.
Mulvaney said the agency hasn’t filed any lawsuits, but chalked that up merely to an “accident” of timing. An agency official at a meeting with reporters Tuesday said that “there are many” new investigations into companies potentially breaking consumer protection laws under Mulvaney.
Yet, Mulvaney also said that he was rethinking the agency’s practice of pursuing discrimination cases on the basis of disparate impact, thanks to Congress’ action in May to stop the bureau from holding third-party auto financing companies to that standard.
[Also read: Mulvaney says he changed the name of the CFPB to ‘send a message’]
He said that he is not sure, given his mandate to apply laws equally, how he can hold banks and other financial firms responsible for disparate impact injuries when he is restricted from doing so with respect to auto lending.
“We’ve just got a very clear indication from Congress as to the legislative stature,” he said. “They tell us what we can and can’t do, and they told us they can’t do this.”
