The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has issued a second Request for Information (RFI) focused on the agency’s conduct of adjudication proceedings. The CFPB has already issued a RFI on civil investigative demands (CIDs), and both are part of a broader review of the agency in an effort to better achieve statutory and regulatory objectives to ensure the Agency is acting in the best interests of consumers. Comments will likely be due in early April, once the RFI is published in the Federal Register.
The CFPB conducts adjudication proceedings according to codified “Rules of Practice” that outline the general conduct of proceedings, the initiation of such proceedings and prehearing rules, hearings, decisions and appeals, and temporary cease-and-desist proceedings. The RFI seeks input on the administrative adjudication proceedings and ways to improve the processes to minimize the burdens, impacts, and costs on parties subject to proceedings. The CFPB is also seeking feedback on whether contested matters should be pursued only in Federal court, rather than through the administrative adjudication process.