Consumer Bureau Seeks Input on Access to Credit

Federal regulator seeks to understand consumer perception of credit market

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is seeking public input on the current state of the credit market as part of a legislatively mandated review of access to credit.

“The CFPB undertakes a biennial review of the consumer credit card market to ensure guidelines and guardrails to protect consumers are working as intended,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. “This request for information is a meaningful data point that will inform our decision-making on any potential changes, and the CFPB invites consumers, credit card issuers, industry analysts, consumer groups, and the general public to submit information and comments relevant to the topic.”

The goal of the review is to determine the overall state of the current credit market and to identify weaknesses when it comes to access to credit.

Specifically, the CFPB is looking for feedback on:

• Terms of credit card agreements and the practices of credit card issuers
• Effectiveness of disclosure of terms, fees, and other expenses of credit card plans
• Adequacy of protections against unfair or deceptive acts or practices relating to credit card plans
• Cost and availability of consumer credit cards
• Safety and soundness of credit card issuers
• Use of risk-based pricing for consumer credit cards
• Consumer credit card product innovation

Consumers can visit this site to offer more details on their experience accessing credit in the current market.

In addition to seeking consumer feedback, the CFPB has also

Photo byTowfiqu barbhuiyaonUnsplash

issued market-monitoring orders to a diverse group of major and specialized credit card issuers. The orders seek information that no other data-gathering mechanisms currently address, such as the practices of major credit card issuers relating to, among other topics, applications and approvals, debt collection, and digital account servicing.

I