In a letter dated July 18, 2017 to Acting Comptroller Noreika purporting to respond to Acting Comptroller Noreika’s July 17 letter, Director Cordray continued to question how there could be “any plausible basis for [Acting Comptroller Noreika’s] claim that the arbitration rule could adversely affect the safety and soundness of the banking system.” We shared how we would respond to Director Cordray’s question, pointing out the many flaws in his rationale for questioning the existence of “any plausible basis” for safety and soundness concerns arising from the CFPB arbitration rule.
In his July 17 letter to Director Cordray, so the OCC could complete its analysis of the arbitration rule’s impact on the federal banking system, Acting Comptroller Noreika repeated his prior request for the data used by the CFPB to develop and support its proposed rule. Despite questioning Acting Comptroller Noreika’s basis for raising safety and soundness concerns, Director Cordray wrote in his July 18 response that “we are happy to share the data underlying our rulemaking. I understand that our teams are in communication and we are in the process of assembling the data your staff has requested.”
Perhaps choosing to wait to respond to Director Cordray’s question until the OCC has reviewed the CFPB data and completed its analysis, Acting Comptroller is reported to have said only the following in a prepared statement released yesterday:
“Consenting to share the data is important progress. I look forward to working with the OCC staff to conduct an independent review of the data and analysis in a timely manner to answer my prudential concerns regarding what impact the final rule may have on the federal banking system.”
The CFPB final arbitration rule was published in today’s Federal Register and has an effective date of September 18, 2017 and a mandatory compliance date of March 19, 2018. The rule’s publication is a trigger for the filing of a petition with the Federal Stability Oversight Council to set aside the rule.
