Banks Brace for Tougher Rules Under Biden on Consumer Protection, Fair Lending

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That will mark a departure from the final time Democrats managed the White Home and Congress in the beginning of the Obama administration. Early efforts then centered on preventing the disaster, adopted by a push to make sure that it might by no means occur once more with the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, the most sweeping financial legislation in a era.

“Obama checked out how you can make the monetary system steady,” mentioned

Karen Petrou,

head of Federal Monetary Analytics, a regulatory advisory agency. “Biden is , ‘How will we make the banking system simply?’ That’s very completely different.”

In follow, that may translate into more durable guidelines on payday lenders—who cost excessive charges of curiosity on short-term loans—and stronger enforcement of fair-lending necessities, an administration official mentioned. Biden’s group may also push to ascertain a government-backed client credit score agency as a substitute for the businesses that create credit score studies, the official mentioned.

Mr. Biden’s decisions for high regulatory posts spotlight his push to guard shoppers from what some Democrats view as predatory conduct by monetary companies.

Rohit Chopra,

at the moment on the Federal Commerce Fee, is the nominee to move the Client Monetary Safety Bureau. Michael Barr, a former Treasury Division official who helped craft Dodd-Frank and create the CFPB, is said to be the top candidate to steer the Workplace of the Comptroller of the Forex, which oversees nationwide banks comparable to

JPMorgan Chase

& Co. and

Bank of America Corp.

“Whereas the Trump-era regulators weren’t blind to areas like client safety, they weren’t on the high of the listing of their priorities,” mentioned

Daniel Stipano,

a former high legal professional on the Workplace of the Comptroller of the Forex. “They’re going to be again on the high of the listing now.”

On the FTC, Mr. Chopra has repeatedly advocated bolder enforcement actions. In 2019, he and one other Democratic commissioner objected to a settlement by which

Facebook Inc.

agreed to pay $5 billion following a probe into the tech giant’s privacy missteps, contending it wasn’t robust sufficient.

Mr. Chopra is seen as likely to step up enforcement actions on the CFPB, with a concentrate on larger financial penalties and a crackdown on repeat offenders. Actions fell sharply early within the Trump administration earlier than rising once more final yr.

He might also revisit a provision, repealed under the Trump administration, requiring so-called payday lenders to confirm debtors’ incomes to make sure they will afford to repay high-interest, short-term loans. He additionally is anticipated to spice up the facility of the bureau arm centered on honest lending.

Republicans in Congress and bankers, who’ve criticized the CFPB as an instrument of presidency overreach, are cautious of the prospect of yet one more swing of the regulatory pendulum.

“The banking trade wants laws written for years, not election cycles,” mentioned

Richard Hunt,

president and chief govt officer of the Client Bankers Affiliation. “The extra regulators from each events can put politics apart, draft laws with enter from all events and clarify their positions, the extra Individuals can profit from a well-regulated banking trade.”

Client advocates want to the Biden administration to ease lending requirements that tightened in the course of the pandemic, which they are saying has disproportionately harmed minorities who are likely to have decrease credit score scores and fewer money for down funds, mentioned

Mike Calhoun,

president of the Middle for Accountable Lending.

The Biden administration’s concentrate on racial fairness additionally means banks seemingly might be required to lend and make investments extra in low- and moderate-income communities beneath revamped guidelines for the Neighborhood Reinvestment Act. The OCC and different regulators can block mergers and new branches if banks fail to satisfy these necessities.

Banks are unlikely to see additional easing of guidelines. Through the Trump administration, banks noticed some requirements of Dodd-Frank scaled back via laws that elevated a key regulatory threshold at which bigger companies are topic to more durable guidelines.

Then again, Treasury Secretary

Janet Yellen

might transfer to undo Trump administration adjustments that made it harder to topic nonbank monetary companies, comparable to Wall Road cash managers, to heightened supervision.

On local weather change, Ms. Yellen might work with different regulators to require banks to higher assess dangers posed by the affect of local weather change.

“I believe we have to significantly have a look at assessing the danger to the monetary system from local weather change,” Ms. Yellen instructed a Senate panel this month.

Write to Andrew Ackerman at andrew.ackerman@wsj.com and Orla McCaffrey at orla.mccaffrey@wsj.com