Battle brews between U.S. credit union, consumer protection regulator

A U.S. financial regulator on Thursday criticized the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for how it polices credit unions, in a sign of growing tensions between regulators appointed by President Donald Trump and holdovers from the Obama administration.
Republicans have been critical of the CFPB, saying it is too unaccountable to Congress because its budget is not appropriated and it is governed by a single director. The Trump Administration has called for reforms to the CFPB, but has been silent on whether it intends to try to have CFPB Director Richard Cordray removed before his term expires next summer.
In a July 6 letter to Cordray, the National Credit Union Administration’s chairman asked the CFPB to stop conducting compliance exams of large credit unions and complained about “aggressive punitive fines.”
Last year, the CFPB fined Navy Federal Credit Union $28.5 million for allegedly making false threats about debt collection to active duty and retired members of the military. The case was resolved without the credit union admitting or denying wrongdoing.
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