What is the CFPA and how Would it Impact Small Business?

The House has passed legislation (H.R. 4173) that will create a massive new government agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, to regulate consumer financial products. The Senate Banking Committee also has passed legislation to create a similar new regulator, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (BFCP).

 

Regardless of what it is called, this new regulator would have unprecedented powers and authority to determine the types of financial products consumers can choose from. In fact, the bill extends far beyond traditional financial services products to a vast segment of the economy -- in short creating a new regulator for much of the business community.

 

The U. S. Chamber supports more effective consumer protection to weed out fraudulent and predatory actors.

 

However, these proposals simply grow the government through an agency with more authority than any other federal regulator, putting new restrictions on consumer access to products, reducing choices among products, and driving up the costs of these products by making it more expensive to develop and offer them. It even goes so far as to give regulators the authority to dictate and require 'plain vanilla' products, assuming federal bureaucrats know what is best for consumers.

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