Policy on No-Action Letters

The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (Bureau) is issuing its revised Policy on No-Action Letters (Policy), which is intended to carry out certain of the Bureau’s authorities under Federal consumer financial law. The Bureau proposed the original version of its Policy on No-Action Letters in October 2014 and finalized it in February 2016 (2016 Policy). In the preamble of the 2016 Policy, the Bureau anticipated that No-Action Letters would be provided rarely and on the basis of exceptional circumstances, and estimated that the Bureau would on average receive one to three actionable applications per year. This estimate was based on the features built into the 2016 Policy; i.e., the 2016 Policy was designed to result in no more than three No-Action Letters per year. The Bureau issued only one No-Action Letter under the 2016 Policy in the nearly three-year period between its issuance and publication of the proposed Policy in December 2018. The Bureau has determined that the approach to facilitating consumer-beneficial innovation through No-Action Letters built into the 2016 Policy is not an adequate response to the extent of innovation occurring in markets for consumer financial products and services. Given that the 2016 Policy was designed to result in a small number of No-Action Letters per year, the Bureau determined that the 2016 Policy required modification. Accordingly, in December 2018, the Bureau proposed to revise the 2016 Policy in order to more effectively carry out the Bureau’s statutory purpose and objectives.