Mick Mulvaney

Critics of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have long sought to convert its leadership structure from a single director to a five-member commission. Here’s why the idea is dead on arrival.

Under Richard Cordray, the consumer bureau had questioned whether affiliations between small-dollar lenders and sovereign tribes are exempt from state laws, but observers say the agency’s acting chief has signaled a more welcoming approach.

“Why we think we know better or how to protect consumers in your state surprises me,” acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney told a group of state attorneys general. “I don’t think we’ll being do much of that anymore.”

Democratic lawmakers are objecting to acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney's decision to strip the fair-lending office of enforcement powers.

Continuing to pull back the reins on the aggressive approach taken under former Director Richard Cordray, the agency's new five-year plan values consumer choice over heavy-handed enforcement.

A federal appeals court handed a major victory — and a significant defeat — to the CFPB by upholding its constitutional structure while also slapping down the agency's practice of making new interpretations of law through enforcement actions.

The decision by the appeals court means that a president can only fire the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for cause. But the ruling also scrapped the CFPB's massive fine against a nonbank mortgage lender.

The acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau can utilize "look-backs" of mortgage servicing and underwriting rules to push for significant changes.

Many in the industry applauded the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's new mission statement shifting the agency's focus away from using enforcement actions as a substitute for rules of the road.

In a blow to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a federal judge rejected the agency's request for over $280 million in penalties against the California lender CashCall, ruling that the lender's violations did not justify such a large fine.