State regulators are finding coordination on multi-state enforcement actions and concurrent company investigations alongside the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are becoming more intricate and involved, said Rudy Aguilar, director at the Texas Office of the Consumer Credit Commissioner.
Under the new CFPB administration, consumer personal information is less available as the regulator becomes more careful about securing that data.
“I don’t think [the CFPB] is going to be as open as they have been in the past as far as sharing information,” he said. “They used to just make a bunch of stuff available, but now we’re in a position where we have to ask for things before we get a look at it, or we have to be involved in certain groups.”
According to a ProPublica report, Acting Director Mick Mulvaney’s freeze on collecting personally identifiable information has held up enforcement within the Bureau. State regulators such as Aguilar are similarly unable to access that data when working jointly with the Bureau.
Where the CFPB is barred from investigating dealerships, Aguilar’s office has the ability to investigate companies of all sizes, at every level of the finance process. Additionally, he said the CFPB has typically focused on the biggest players in the space, whereas state regulators are more intimately involved with smaller lenders.
Because of the pullback at the CFPB, state regulators started to “heat up” and haven’t plateaued yet.
“I’ve seen the subprime sector heating up again, at least somewhat,” Aguilar said. “There are no real good statistics, unfortunately … but from our compliance experience, you can sense things moving a little bit [in the subprime sector].”
Aguilar will join a panel of state regulators at the Auto Finance Performance & Compliance Summit on May 9-10 at the Omni Dallas. To register click here.
