WASHINGTON—Former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray is warning the agency is not doing enough to protect consumers amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“The CFPB has been misreading the current crisis,” Cordray said during a virtual panel hosted by U.S. PIRG. “This is not a time to see this as businesses need help, we need to ease off on businesses and let them have a lot of leeway … if those businesses are consumer finance companies — if the bank, if they are mortgage lenders, mortgage servicers, if there are debt collectors and credit reporting companies — if you ease off of them and don't make them do their jobs, consumers will bear the brunt of that.”
Cordray, who left the CFPB for an unsuccessful run for governor of Ohio, warned that in an absence of the CFPB’s aggressive actions, bad actors could emerge, reported Yahoo Finance.
“Consumers will be harassed by debt collectors, consumers won't have credit reports that are inaccurate, that don't reflect the true creditworthiness,” he explained. “And the most immediate to me [is] if mortgage servicers are allowed to have leeway and they don't answer the calls, they don't follow through… and people won't get the relief on their mortgages. They will fall into foreclosure they will lose their house.”
As a result, Cordray said, with 22 million Americans unemployed and facing financial hardship, “we really need to step up and the Consumer Bureau needs to be what it's supposed to be: the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.”