WASHINGTON - To Director Richard Cordray, the CFPB represents a benevolent agency that has the best interests of credit unions at heart.

To Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.), the CFPB is filled with overzealous regulators intent on stifling choice and competition.

Those vastly differing views of the CFPB were presented on Tuesday to attendees of CUNA’s Governmental Affairs Conference.

Speaking first, Cordray said he knows credit unions were not the culprits in the recent financial crisis.

As a result, credit union officials have argued that they should be exempt from CFPB oversight. Cordray said while Congress gave the agency some exemption authority, a blanket exemption for credit unions would fly in the face of congressional intent.

Cordray said skeptics had predicted the CFPB’s Qualified Mortgage rule would decrease the number of mortgages approved. The opposite has been the case, he said, adding that credit unions originated 39% more mortgage loans during the first nine months of 2015 than in the same period of 2014.

Cordray also said the board has been responsive to credit union objections over some agency rules. For instance, he said, the board broadened the definition of rural areas in deciding where financial institutions fit. He said Congress wanted the definition even broader and passed legislation last year to include even more credit unions in that definition.

The debacle over the definition of rural represents much of what is wrong with the CFPB, Barr said during his speech. He said one of the most rural counties in Kentucky would not have been classified as rural under the agency’s original defitions.

“This bureau is everything that’s wrong with the Dodd-Frank Act and it should be a primary target,” Barr, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, said.

He also took aim at the CFPB’s budget, saying that while the agency is funded by an allocation from the Federal Reserve, officials at that agency are not aware how the CFPB spends its money.

“We don’t have control over this agency,” Barr said.

Barr leveled similar criticism at the NCUA, saying that the agency increased its spending in eight consecutive fiscal years.

Instant Insights /

CFPB: Benevolent Credit Union Friend or Dictator? Onsite at GAC

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