CFPB Director RichardCordray said the CFPB does not plan to prohibit financialinstitutions from charging overdraft fees.

Although he stressed during an online town hall meeting withNCUA Chairman Debbie Matz on Tuesday the bureau has not decided howto address the issue, Cordray also did not rule out newrestrictions.

“We are not going to be banning the overdraft product. I don'tknow that we would have the authority to do that and I also don'tknow think that's justified,” Cordray said. “As to whether we willhave certain modifications and constraints around existingpractices, that will all depend on what we see in the data but Iwould encourage people to continue to give us plenty offeedback.”

According to NCUA officials, nearly 1,000 people registered forthe webinar, and nearly 700 logged in simultaneously.

Cordray said the CFPB is examining several overdraft issues that have been“bones of contention,” including the size of fees, frequency offees, occasions for fees and the ordering of transactions.

He reiterated that the CFPB's plans are uncertain and notimminent at this point.

“We don't even have a proposal out,” he said.

Matz was asked for an update on the fixed assets waiverproposal, particularly what changes the industry can expect.

“We are carefully analyzing the comments that we received sothank you to all of you who took the time to send your comments tous,” she said. “We are hoping to have a final rule in the nextcouple of months. I can't be certain about that because we're stilldiscussing amongst ourselves what some of the changes are we shouldmake.”

Matz added that the NCUA would like to eliminate the waiver process because it is not productive for credit unions.She said the rule would certainly be finalized by the summer.

“It's not a good use of your time and it's not a good use of ourtime and so that's something that you can look forward to,” shesaid.