CBA Statement on Latest CFPB Misrepresentation of Credit Card Rewards

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Consumer Bankers Association (CBA) President and CEO Lindsey Johnson released the following statement today in response to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) circular on credit card rewards, the latest example of the Bureau misrepresenting data to garner misleading headlines:

"The only bait-and-switch that’s happening here is from the CFPB once again misrepresenting its own data. It's unfortunate that with a little over a month left in the Biden Administration, the CFPB continues to ignore well-settled facts about one of the most highly competitive, well-regulated, transparently-disclosed industries in the world.

“As the CFPB’s own research shows, credit cards are – by far – the best tool for the one-fifth of Americans that lack access to credit to begin building their financial lives. 

“The CFPB’s press release takes particular aim at the 25 largest credit card issuers when its own data show those are the only institutions that, due to scale and underwriting sophistication, regularly provide credit to the ‘credit invisibles’ – real people the CFPB too frequently overlooks in their rush to score headlines on their way out the door.

“Credit card rewards are deeply valued by consumers and it's time once and for all to tell regulators: Facts Matter.”

Why It Matters

In its press release, the CFPB misrepresents core risk-based pricing principles and the fact that credit cards, including retail cards, are the primary way consumers with low or no credit scores access well-regulated liquidity and that banks, by far, are the only ones willing and able to lend to these consumers. The CFPB’s own research shows that credit cards are the primary way people gain access to well-regulated credit products and become credit visible.

The CFPB also continues to use its debunked analysis of credit card terms to misrepresent the state of the market and how banks underwrite all consumers to provide access to well-regulated credit products.

Moreover, the CFPB's new credit card "shopping tool" doesn't provide consumers with information they are actually seeking but is rather another attempt to distort the marketplace and further CFPB's misguided agenda. 

CBA Advocacy

• To learn more about how consumers shop for credit cards with confidence, click HERE.
• To learn more about how CBA has been fact checking the CFPB and its continued misrepresentation of data, click HERE.
• To read CBA’s blog post on the CFPB’s misleading credit card rewards report, click HERE.
• To read CBA’s blog post on credit cards rewards, click HERE.
• To read CBA President and CEO Lindsey Johnson’s statement on the CFPB’s misleading press release on the highly competitive credit card market, click HERE.