Richard's Rapid Fire -July 14, 2017

July 14, 2017

CBA Working to Overturn CFPB’s Arbitration Rule

This week, I appeared on "Nightly Business Report" to debate Rohit Chopra, former assistant director at the CFPB, over the CFPB’s “Washington Knows Best” arbitration rule. As I mentioned to hosts Tyler Mathisen and Sue Herera, the CFPB’s arbitration rule is a raw deal for consumers. Arbitration has long provided a faster, better, and more cost-effective means of addressing consumer disputes than litigation or class action lawsuits. The CFPB’s own study shows the average consumer receives $5,400 in cash relief when using arbitration and just $32 through a class action suit. The real benefactors of the CFPB’s arbitration rule are not consumers, but trial lawyers who pocket over $1 million on average per class action lawsuit. By only using fuzzy math is the CFPB able to interpret these figures as favorable to consumers. CBA will continue to advocate to overturn this terrible rule.  Watch the interview here.

 

 

House Seeks to Overturn CFPB Action

The House Appropriations Committee passed a 2018 funding bill including several initiatives reforming the CFPB, such as addressing the Bureau’s authority to regulate small-dollar credit, repealing their authority to restrict arbitration, and repealing their small business data collection requirement. These reforms will go a long way towards bringing needed regulatory relief to consumers and small businesses. However, CBA, along with 23 other trade associations representing thousands of banks, credit unions, financial institutions, and businesses, still believe a commission-based leadership structure at the CFPB is needed to provide for greater transparency, fairness and accountability. Furthermore, the majority of voters in eight battleground states prefer a commission over a sole director. We thank Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV) for offering an amendment establishing a commission at the CFPB, and Rep. Tom Graves (R-GA), Chair of the Financial Services Appropriations Subcommittee, for his supportive comments.  CBA will continue to advocate for this much-needed reform.

 

 

Recess, Senate’s out? Not So Fast

With a host of nominations, Health Care, and the debt limit on the Senate’s legislative docket for the year, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will keep the Senate in session for the first two weeks of August. Generally speaking, both chambers of Congress tend to take the month of August to return home to their districts and states and visit with constituents. But not this year, as this change in schedule signals there is much work to be done.

 

 

CBA Executive Banking School Kicks Off in One Week

We are excited as ever to welcome our students to the 66th session of Executive Banking School! Three hundred of the industry’s brightest bankers will be joining us from July 23 to August 2 in Greenville, South Carolina at Furman University. Students will get to participate in a baseball game at Greenville Drive, and network with their bank’s top executives at Bank Dinner Night. We also look forward to welcoming CBA’s Admin committee and guest lecturers, including CBA Board Members Cathy Nash of Woodforest Bank and Dennis Devine of KeyBank, BB&T President and CEO Kelly King, and Mike Price of First Commonwealth Bank. The CBA Team ships out this Wednesday. See you in Greenville.

 

 

Membership Spotlight: Once a Part of the CBA family, Always a Part of the CBA Family

This week, I visited Fifth Third Bank in Cincinnati, Ohio to meet with CBA’s newest Board Member Phil McHugh, CBA Committee Member Mark Erhardt, Executive Mike Butera, and Chief Legal Officer Jelena McWilliams. Throughout the visit, we discussed the current landscape of the banking industry.

 

It was great to see former CBA Board Member Chris McComish of Scottrade Bank in Washington, D.C. this week. I was glad we could catch up. As I always say, once a member of the CBA Family, always a member of the CBA Family.

Former CBA Board Member Chris McComish of Scottrade Bank (left) with CBA President & CEO Richard Hunt (right).

 

 

CBA’s Education Funding Committee Visits Capitol Hill

This week, members of CBA’s Education Funding Committee came in to CBA’s Washington, DC headquarters to communicate their work to Congress, and discuss how best to serve consumers. After meeting with nine separate Congressional offices, and representatives from the House Budget Committee and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, the Education Funding committee met for a roundtable discussion on recent trends and policy objectives in the student lending space. The committee also had a lively discussion with the Heritage Foundation’s Mary Clare Amselem about the high cost of federal student loans, and how private lenders can further assist students loan borrowers.

 

Thank you to Education Funding Committee Chair & Vice Chair, John Vidovich of Discover and Christine Roberts of Citizens for leading the meeting, and for Education Funding Committee Members Mary Dwyer Pembroke of Discover, Tom Levandowski of Wells Fargo, Michael McFarlane of Citizens, Dan Meyers of Cognition Financial, Tim Morrison of Sallie Mae, Naimesh Patel of PNC, Mark Smith of SunTrust, and Paul Wozniak of the College Loan Corporation for attending and contributing to such a robust discussion.

CBA's Education Funding Committee me this week in Washington, DC.

 

 

Three Things to Know To Be in The Know

Yellen's surprise comments jolt bond market

Trump’s Pick to Lead FDIC Withdraws From Consideration, Source Says

Trump to nominate Quarles to be Fed's top banking regulator

 

 

Lagniappe

 

Tim Berry will join JPMorgan Chase as Head of Government Relations.

 

Lily Capriotti, BMO Harris' Head of Retail Chicago Metro South, addresses 29 of her bank's branch managers during CBA OnSite MarketSim this week in Naperville, IL.