The CFPB has issued a request for information that seeks comment on its adopted regulations and new rulemaking authorities.

As used in the RFI, the “Adopted Regulations” generally include “all final rulemakings that the Bureau issued after providing notice and seeking public comment, including any accompanying Official Interpretations (commentary) issued by the Bureau.”  For purposes of the RFI, the Adopted Regulations include statutorily–mandated or discretionary rules issued by the CFPB pursuant to rulemaking authority transferred by Dodd-Frank from another agency to the CFPB as well as new CFPB rulemaking authorities created by Dodd-Frank.  Comments on the RFI must be received no later than 90 days after it is published in the Federal Register, which the CFPB expects to occur on approximately March 19, 2018.

The RFI’s Supplementary Information distinguishes the Adopted Regulations from the CFPB’s Inherited Regulations.  The Inherited Regulations are the regulations issued by other agencies pursuant to rulemaking authority transferred to the CFPB by Dodd-Frank.  Many of the Adopted Regulations amended the Inherited Regulations.

Although the CFPB’s 2015 HMDA rule and its 2017 small dollar loan rule are Adopted Regulations, the CFPB is not currently requesting feedback on those rules because it has previously announced that it intends to engage in further rulemaking to reconsider those rules. The CFPB also notes that although it had previously announced that it was conducting assessments of certain Adopted Regulations concerning remittance transfers, mortgage servicing, and ability to repay and qualified mortgages, respondents to the RFI are free to comment on those rules.  However, for purposes of the RFI, the CFPB will consider any comments previously received in connection with the assessments.

Subject to those qualifications, the CFPB seeks feedback on all aspects of the Adopted Regulations, including the following:

• Aspects of the Adopted Regulations that should be tailored to institutions of particular types or sizes, create unintended consequences, overlap or conflict with other laws or regulations so as to make compliance difficult or particularly burdensome, are incompatible or misaligned with new technologies, or could be modified to provide consumers more protection from identity theft
• Changes the CFPB could make to the Adopted Regulations to more effectively meet the statutory purposes and objectives set forth in the federal consumer financial laws and the CFPB’s goals for a particular regulation
• Changes the CFPB could make to the Adopted Regulations that would advance the CFPB’s statutory purposes set forth in Section 1021 of Dodd-Frank
• Pilots, field tests, demonstrations, or other activities the CFPB could launch to better quantify benefits and costs of potential revisions to the Adopted Regulations or to make compliance with the Adopted Regulations more efficient and effective
• Areas where the CFPB has not fully exercised its rulemaking authority in connection with a specific Adopted Regulation or with regard to rulemaking authority created by Dodd-Frank and where rulemaking would be beneficial and align with the purposes and objectives of applicable federal consumer financial laws

The new RFI represents the eighth in a series of RFIs announced by Mr. Mulvaney.  The subjects of the CFPB’s first seven RFIs and their comment deadlines are as follows:

• Processes surrounding civil investigative demands and investigational hearings-March 27, 2018
• Administrative adjudication processes-April 6, 2018
• Enforcement processes-April 13, 2018
• Supervision program-May 21, 2018
• External engagement-May 29, 2018
• Public reporting of consumer complaint information-June 4, 2018
• Rulemaking processes-June 7, 2018

In its press release announcing the latest RFI, the CFPB stated that the next RFI in the series will be issued next week and will address the CFPB’s Inherited Regulations and inherited rulemaking authorities.