CONSUMER PROTECTION/LEGAL/MICK MULVANEY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Trump administration has revamped the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s lending-discrimination operations, an agency spokesman said Thursday, the latest step in a broad review of the bureau’s activities under its new director.
The changes place the consumer-finance regulator’s Office of Fair Lending and Equal Opportunity under the direct control of acting director Mick Mulvaney, a longtime bureau critic appointed by President Donald Trump in November.
The office, which handled some of the agency’s highest-profile cases, was previously part of the bureau’s division that examines banks and brings enforcement cases. It monitors for lending discrimination in markets such mortgages, auto and student lending… Consumer advocates said they worry the shift will result in a pullback from the bureau’s work to identify and punish discrimination against minority borrowers…
The fair lending office will focus on advocacy, coordination and education, the CFPB said. The group has a staff of more than 30 people, most of whom are lawyers and around a dozen have enforcement expertise.
The changes were first reported by the Washington Post.”
-Yuka Hayashi, “Trump Administration Shuffles CFPB’s Lending-Discrimination Operations,” The Wall Street Journal online, Feb. 1, 2018 04:57pm