House Financial Services Committee Requests Information from CFPB Related to Recent Settlements with Little or No Consumer Redress

On February 7, 2019, the House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters and Chairman Al Green, who heads the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, sent a letter to CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger requesting documents on recent settlements between the Bureau and companies as part of the their oversight of the CFPB. 

The letter requests documents relating to three recent settlements where the Bureau did not require companies to provide redress or restitution to impacted consumers.  In their letter, Chairwoman Waters and Chairman Green raised concerns “about how the Consumer Bureau is exercising its enforcement activity, especially how it is determining whether to require companies to pay redress to consumers that have been harmed.”  The lawmakers wrote that not requiring restitution for harmed consumers “stands in stark contrast to the Consumer Bureau’s practice under the leadership of former Director Cordray.  During Director Cordray’s tenure, the Consumer Bureau recovered nearly $12 billion in relief for harmed consumers over its first six years.  American consumers deserve a Consumer Bureau that will fight to recover their hard-earned money when they are cheated.”

The letter asks the CFPB to provide various records related to the three settlements, including “all documents and communications referring to or related to the issue of restitution” in each of the settlements.