A revised procedural rule on how the consumer financial protection agency designates nonbanks for supervision is in effect now, according to a notice in Tuesday’s Federal Register, and comments from the public will be accepted until May 23.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) one week ago approved its final rule, which is aimed in part at conforming the bureau’s procedures to a recent organizational change.
The CFPB said it began a transition in February to a new organizational structure for its supervision and enforcement work. The functions of the Associate Director of the Division of Supervision, Enforcement, and Fair Lending are being transferred to the Supervision Director as head of a Division of Supervision and the Enforcement Director as head of a Division of Enforcement. Its rule, it said, was intended in part to implement that change in the context of supervisory designation proceedings.
The bureau in 2023 issued procedures to govern nonbank supervisory designation proceedings, but it noted last week that for many years, those procedures were “largely unused.” In 2022, the CFPB said it would begin to make active use of the supervisory designation authority.
The agency’s first decision and order was issued in February in a contested proceeding, which discusses the CFPB’s view of its authority.