CONSUMER PROTECTION/STEVE MNUCHIN/TREASURY: “U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Tuesday [2-6-18] said he wants to know how the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is handling a probe into a hack of credit bureau Equifax Inc after a report that the agency’s chief has pulled back from investigating the matter.
Equifax disclosed in September that hackers had stolen personal data it had collected on some 143 million Americans.
On Monday, Reuters reported that the acting chief of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Mick Mulvaney, had put the brakes on the agency’s Equifax investigation… On Tuesday, the CFPB said it was examining the Equifax breach but declined to give details… Reuters, citing people familiar with the matter, reported on Monday that while the CFPB has an open investigation into Equifax, Mulvaney has reined in the work begun by his predecessor, Richard Cordray.
Mulvaney has not ordered subpoenas against Equifax or sought sworn testimony from executives, routine steps in a full-scale probe, the sources said. They said the CFPB has shelved plans for on-the-ground tests of how Equifax protects data, an idea backed by Cordray.
The CFPB also recently rebuffed bank regulators at the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency when they offered to help with on-site exams of credit bureaus, the sources said.”
-Patrick Rucker, “Treasury’s Mnuchin says he wants answers on Equifax breach,” Reuters, Feb. 6, 2018 09:39am