Sunday, August 9, 2015

By Cornelius Nunev


The brouhaha over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has only gotten worse in recent weeks. The latest log on the fire is the charge card hotline which the CFPB is supposed to be opening soon. The hotline would essentially take calls from con-cerned consumers, and the agency would compile grievances about charge card companies. However, that is the kind of in-formation is very easily misused, which is why banks and card issuers want some restraints placed on how it could be used. This would help keep all pay day loan information private.

More penalties put on banks and card businesses

Lots of debate was put to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau before the credit card hot-line was considered. This hotline would make it so consumers can complain about charge card issuers and practices they have, Daily Finance states. The hotline would be so consumers can report any abuse that hap-pens. Then the Bureau would give that data to states to use. Basi-cally, the complaint system would be crowdsourcing; the data would come straight from the people. However, the complaints would also go straight to government officials who could potentially fine card issuers without vetting the grievances. Most banks and card is-suers are hoping to keep the complaints private. That means the information would stay between the bank, the government agency and the person who complained instead of having a public database.

Banks want flow of information stemmed

The flow of data can hurt banks a lot, which is they are fighting for private data. Currently, the complaint line is set to go live on July 21, when the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is supposed to begin operations. Everything said about charge card issuers can be accessed with the way the line is set up. It is true that financial institution and card issuers may not want the information out so nobody knows what is really going on. It is also im-portant to consider some people will always com-plain about fees, no matter how reasonable they are. A way to get infor-mation straight from the public is certainly admirable, however without restraint it can very easily be used inappropriately.

How the future is looking

Almost every part of consumer finance, including debit and charge cards, mortgages and payday loans, will be monitored by the CFPB. Congress has been fighting over the organization. There were three bills on the bureau introduced though. Two of these would change who is in charge of it, Reuters reports. With one bill, a director would be required before the CFPB could get to work. Another would make it so a five member panel would replace the one director. Congressional Republicans have made it clear they're not in favor of Warren, the adviser to the White House who is assisting in getting the bureau ready for operation. It doesn't seem likely that it will begin operations in July as sched-uled.




About the Author:



0 commentaires:

Post a Comment