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June 27, 2011 – NAFCU Executive Vice President of Government Affairs Dan Berger on Friday welcomed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's first move toward an oversight system for non-depository service providers.

"NAFCU supports full and robust regulatory oversight for payday lenders, foreclosure relief services and other financial service providers that have too often flown below the regulatory radar," Berger wrote in a letter to Elizabeth Warren, the Treasury secretary's special advisor on the CFPB.

The Dodd-Frank Act authorizes the bureau to examine entities involved in activities such as mortgage lending, payday lending and private education loans.It also authorizes it to supervise certain larger market participants.

"NAFCU would like the CFPB to use these authorities to capture the activities of non-depository institutions and subject them to the same rigorous oversight that depository institutions currently undergo," Berger said. "We hope that the recently released proposal on larger market participants is just the first step in the CFPB's work on under-regulated entities and look forward to working with you on other proposals."

NAFCU was the only credit union trade group to oppose placing credit unions under CFPB authority, but it strongly supported having the bureau exercise oversight of unregulated entities. "Credit unions are highly regulated and are subject to examination by functional regulators," Berger noted in Friday's letter. "Non-depository institutions, however, often avoid meaningful oversight.