Date on the CFPB: “Memories are Starting to Fade”

Last week amid all the drama of the Senate procedural vote on Richard Cordray’s nomination to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), I noted that the CFPB continues to go about it’s business as they released their draft, model credit card disclosure form.

But how is the CFPB really doing? Are they where they should be? Acting Director Raj Date sat down for an interview with The American Banker to discuss those questions. The highlight from my perspective was hearing Date discuss the problems that are being caused by the lack of a confirmed director:

Obviously, without a director, we are behind where I would like us to be in terms of our nondepository supervision. During the course of the credit bubble, many of the most problematic mortgages were originated not by banks, and not for banks and credit union and thrift balance sheets, but originated by nonbanks on the one hand, and executed in the capital markets either by the GSEs or by the street on the other. But already memories of the importance of nondepositories in consumer finance are starting to fade. But they haven’t faded for us, and in my mind it’s a shame that we’re not executing nondepository supervision today.

The emphasis is mine, but I think that’s a critical point to keep in my mind as the CFPB enters a new year without its full suite of powers and the industry continues to face an uneven playing field. The rest of the interview is interesting as well, as Date discusses the banking industry’s fear of the bureau, their approach to rulemaking vs. enforcement, and the bureau’s top priorities in 2012. Read the whole thing.