Onsite Coverage: We’ve Only Just Begun: NCUA, CFPB on Consumer Protections

WASHINGTON — In a lively GAC breakout session chaired by CUNA Deputy General Counsel Mary Dunn, top officials from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the NCUA made it clear that the federal government’s efforts to better protect consumers in their financial dealings are not going away, indeed they are likely to intensify.

But the showstopper quote came from panelist Marcus Schaefer, CEO of the $1.6 billion Truliant Federal Credit Union in Winston-Salem, N.C.: “We [in credit unions] have the same mission as CFPB,” which he defined as heightening consumer protections against unfair practices of some financial services providers.

Schaefer also indicated he serves on a CFPB advisory board and has observed the new agency close up. “They are listening. We have seen them step back and modifying regulations after hearing from us,” he said.

As for what CFPB sees as its mission, panelist Zixta Martinez – CFPB assistant director – said the agency “is working hard on behalf of consumers who have been deceived.”

She ticked off prime CFPB areas of concern:

* Deceptive marketing of financial products.

* “The debt trap,” which she defined as products that ensnare consumers

* Bystander issues, which she illustrated by the for instance of a financial institution that sells a debt to a collector, then removes itself from responsibility for the collector’s behavior.

* “Persistent problems of discrimination.”

Martinez stressed that the agency is not yet two years old and more will be coming from it.

Another panelist, Gail Laster – an attorney who helped write Dodd-Frank and who now heads the NCUA Office of Consumer Protection – said that her office “is a sign of the new NCUA.”

“At NCUA we take a broad view of what consumer protection means,” Laster added. But she stressed that, in her mind, the mission encompasses “not just enforcement, but also education.”

Her office’s chief function at present is helping implement CFPB regulations inside credit unions, said Laster.

Also from 2013 GAC: