CFPB unveils revised supervisory appeals process
Coming off of tabulating how much into the billions its enforcement actions totaled last year, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a procedural rule on Friday, updating the process by which financial institutions can appeal supervisory findings.
Officials said the updated rule broadens how the bureau evaluates appeals, the options for resolving an appeal, the matters subject to appeal and makes additional clarifying changes.
The CFPB reiterated that it examines financial institutions for compliance with federal consumer financial law and can help identify issues before they become systemic or cause significant harm.
As with other supervisory agencies, officials said CFPB examinations are confidential.
However, the CFPB periodically publishes Supervisory Highlights, which share summaries of examiners’ findings without naming specific institutions.
Other specifics to updated appeals process include:
—The supervision director will select an appeals committee of three CFPB managers with relevant expertise who did not work on the matter being appealed, and who will advise the supervision director in conjunction with attorneys assigned by the CFPB’s general counsel.
—The appeals committee will now be able to remand a matter to Supervision staff for consideration of a modified finding, in addition to the existing options of upholding or rescinding the finding.
—Institutions may now file an appeal of any compliance rating or finding, not only an adverse rating.
The CFPB explained its original supervisory appeals protocol was modeled after the processes of the prudential banking regulators and was last updated in 2015.
Officials said the updated process “reflects changes to the CFPB’s organizational structure and is informed by the prudential regulators’ recent changes to their respective processes.”
More details about the revised process can be found via this website.