Acting Director Mulvaney Announces End to Regulation by Enforcement

Acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney recently informed CFPB employees that the Bureau will no longer “push the envelope” with regards to enforcement of federal consumer financial statutes, presumably ending what has been referred to as “Regulation by Enforcement” under former Director Cordray.

In a three page email, dated January 23, 2018, that was leaked to the journalistic enterprise Pro Publica, Mr. Mulvaney opines on his view that “[i]t is not appropriate for any government to ‘push the envelope’ when it comes into conflict with [its] citizens.”  While Mr. Mulvaney notes that he believes that citizens and regulated entities deserve the courtesy of knowing that the law is prior to it being enforced against them, he emphasizes that the Bureau will continue to be vigorous in its enforcement of the law as written.

In this vein, Mr. Mulvaney states that the Bureau will focus on “quantifiable and unavoidable harm to the consumer,” but will not “go looking for excuses to bring lawsuits.”  He ends his message by stating that the CFPB has a new mission:  that it will “exercise, with humility and prudence, the almost unparalleled power given to [it] to faithfully enforce the law in furtherance of the mandate given to [it] by Congress.”

The memo is available here: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4357880-Mulvaney-Memo.html.