Like a fighter who appeared to be down for the count, the embattled Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is showing signs of life as some of its department stagger back into limited operation.
“CFPB RIP,” Elon Musk wrote on social media on Feb. 7, after his crew ejected workers and even went so far as to rip the sign down from the outside of the building.
The shutdown is facing multiple court challenges, like many of Musk's other actions, but it is also becoming clear that protecting consumers is not the agency's only function.
The financial services industry has long had it in for the CFPB, which it has claimed in overly aggressive in protecting consumers against exorbitant interest rates, invasions of privacy, junk fees and undisclosed charges, among other transgressions.
Essential to business
But it turns out that some of CFPB's duties are essential to big business. As The New York Times reports, the consumer bureau is responsible for compiling a key mortgage interest rate that is released weekly.
Lenders must certify that their interest rates are in line with that base weekly rate in order to continue lending money. Mortgage lending would freeze nationwide without the rate, which CFPB has been struggling to provide during the attempted shutdown.
While a notable example, the key mortgage interest rate is far from unique. When Congress created the agency in 2011 to help consumers recover from the financial meltdown, it gave CFPB at least 80 specific duties.
Those duties include running offices to serve members of the military, student loan borrowers and scores of specific regulations governing mortgage loan disclosures, fair access to credit, and other important protections.
While it's a long way from being back to business as usual, the CFPB is at least managing to keep the lights on, which is much more than many had anticipated.