By Katalina M. Bianco, J.D.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is proposing to suspend a requirement that each quarter certain credit card issuers send their agreements to the bureau. The agreements are published in a public database on the CFPB website. The suspension would be temporary, however. The bureau intends to streamline the submission process and will work to do that during the one-year suspension.
CFPB Director Richard Cordray said that streamlining the process for how credit card issuer submit their agreements to the bureau "could help save time and reduce burden for both industry and our agency." Access to the data would be faster and easier for consumers too, he added. While designing the new process, the bureau plans on exploring better reporting formats for posting information.
The CFPB is proposing to suspend credit card agreement submissions that would otherwise be due to the bureau by the first business day on or after April 30, July 31, and Oct. 31 of 2015, and Jan. 31, 2016. Credit card issuers would resume submitting credit card agreements on a quarterly basis to the CFPB starting on April 30, 2016. The proposal would not affect issuers’ obligations to post the agreements on their own websites.
During the temporary suspension period, the CFPB will collect consumer credit card agreements from the largest card issuers’ public websites and post the agreements to its online consumer credit card agreements database to ensure that the database contains agreement terms currently offered to consumers, the bureau said.
Comments are due by March 13, 2015.
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