The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (the Bureau) announced today the eighth in a series of at least twelve broad Requests for Information (RFIs) seeking public comment on a range of Bureau activities and practices. Today’s RFI, on rulemaking by the Bureau, seeks comments and information on whether the Bureau should:

  • amend any rules that the Bureau has issued since its creation; or
  • issue new rules under its statutory rulemaking authorities.

The RFI is focused on the substance of Bureau rules, and not the Bureau’s rulemaking process — which is the subject of a separate RFI. Moreover, it is limited to rules adopted, or to be adopted, by the Bureau since its creation in 2011. Another RFI, to be issued in the coming weeks, will seek comment on rules issued by other agencies and inherited by the Bureau in 2011, when the Bureau assumed responsibility for the enforcement of enumerated consumer laws previously administered by other Federal banking agencies.

The Bureau has previously described its series of RFIs as a “call for evidence to ensure the Bureau is fulfilling its proper and appropriate functions to best protect consumers.” In this RFI, the Bureau expresses particular interest in receiving comments on:

  • the tailoring of regulations to particular types of institutions or institutions of particular sizes;
  • unintended regulatory consequences, including regulatory overlap and inconsistency; and
  • updates to regulations to allow for technological innovation and to protect against identity theft and cybercrime.

The Bureau is also seeking comments on how its regulations can be better aligned to the statutory purposes and objectives of Federal consumer financial laws and stated Bureau policies, and also on pilots, field tests, demonstrations or other activities that the Bureau could launch to test (and quantify the costs and benefits of) potential revisions to its regulations.

The comment period for the RFI will run for 90 days from the date of its publication in the Federal Register. The RFI is expected to be published on March 19, which would make the deadline for comments June 17, 2018.

Prior Bureau RFIs are available here; our coverage of the Bureau’s RFI on external engagements (such as field hearings and town halls) is here; a Covington-authored article on the Bureau’s RFI related to its Civil Investigative Demand process is here; and a Covington-authored article on the Bureau’s RFI related to its enforcement processes is here.

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Photo of Nikhil Gore Nikhil Gore

A member of the international arbitration and financial institutions practices, Nikhil V. Gore represents sovereign states and U.S. and global firms in international treaty-based and commercial disputes. He also regularly represents U.S. financial institutions, and the U.S. branches and affiliates of foreign financial…

A member of the international arbitration and financial institutions practices, Nikhil V. Gore represents sovereign states and U.S. and global firms in international treaty-based and commercial disputes. He also regularly represents U.S. financial institutions, and the U.S. branches and affiliates of foreign financial institutions, in investigations and inquiries involving the Federal Reserve, OCC, FDIC, CFPB, and state banking regulators.

Mr. Gore has served as counsel in investment and commercial arbitrations spanning several industries and a variety of regions, including Asia, Eastern Europe, North America, and Southern Africa. Additionally, he has expertise in the law of the sea, and was part of the Covington team that secured an order from the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, which required Russia to release three Ukrainian naval vessels and twenty-four servicemen detained in the Black Sea in 2018.

In his financial institutions practice, Mr. Gore has experience with enforcement actions and investigations relating to the Bank Secrecy Act, the federal criminal money laundering statutes, the full range of safety and soundness issues (including, in particular, supervisory reviews of bank control functions), and fair lending and consumer compliance. Mr. Gore is a regular contributor to the firm’s financial services blog.

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