ICYMI: CBA’s Johnson Highlights Need for Congress to Enact Meaningful CFPB Reforms to Benefit Hardworking Americans

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Consumer Bankers Association (CBA) President and CEO Lindsey Johnson today participated in a fireside chat titled "Modernizing Consumer Financial Protection: Reform, Accountability, and Opportunity" with U.S. House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill (R-Ark.), Financial Institutions Subcommittee Chair Andy Barr (R-Ky.), and other industry leaders to highlight the need for proposed reforms and how to establish a more durable, transparent, and accountable Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The fireside chat was held after the committee Majority leadership unveiled their Consumer Financial Protection Accountability and Reform Act of 2026.

Below are key excerpts from Johnson during the fireside chat. To watch the full event, click HERE.

On the need for the CFPB to conduct cost-benefit analyses of the rules it promulgates:

"It's so important that the CFPB starts with rules where there's actual consumer harm - evidence of consumer harm and/or a market failure. And then the CFPB provides a [rule] that actually is justified based on rigorous cost-benefit analysis and is actually solving that consumer harm or that market failure […] The efforts [of Chairman Barr and the Committee] all have included in Title I to create a rigorous and transparent cost-benefit analysis that includes performance metrics and actual metrics… [and determines] what are direct costs to the banks of trying to comply with these changing rules, and the indirect costs for a consumer who may no longer have access to that product [...] That hasn't been done to date and that's a very meaningful change that will actually help the Bureau meet its mission."

On the need to reform the CFPB's Unfair, Deceptive, or Abusive Acts or Practices (UDAAP) authority:

"You want companies to come forward and say, 'Hey, this is something you should be aware of,' or, 'Hey, we just identified this issue.' That should be encouraged […] But when things that were perfectly legal one day - on a product that had existed for decades - suddenly became illegal as declared by one director of the prior CFPB and said they were going [retroactively] go after companies […] We need to make sure that we have rules in place before a director actually takes action and [the Consumer Financial Protection Accountability and Reform Act of 2026] is going to be as paramount to it."

On working with lawmakers to advance meaningful CFPB reforms through legislation:

"This is about better, more durable protection for consumers: a focus on following the law, follows the law, uses facts and data to make decisions, focuses its resources on areas of true consumer harm, and applies clear and consistent rules of the road that we can follow. This is when consumers benefit the most and the results of [the Consumer Financial Protection Accountability and Reform Act of 2026] would be just that. It would mean transforming the CFPB into a more accountable and durable regulator. You will see that with greater competition, greater innovation, greater access to credit. We look forward to working with you and others on the committee to see this signed into law."

CBA Advocacy

• To read a recent CBA blog post about the need for Congress to reboot the CFPB, click HERE.
• To read CBA's white paper calling for CFPB reforms to transform the CFPB into the credible, durable regulator that consumers deserve, click HERE.
• To read what lawmakers, subject matter experts, and the media are saying about the need to enact meaningful CFPB reforms, click HERE.
• To read CBA's recent policy recommendations ahead of the CFPB's semi-annual address to Congress, click HERE.