CFPB Official Says No New Research Backs Payday Rule Rollback

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau did not conduct new research to justify rescinding borrower ability-to-repay requirements on payday loans, a top official said.

“We did not do any new research. We did not do anything,” Thomas Pahl, a policy associate director overseeing the CFPB’s Research, Markets & Regulations division, told House lawmakers May 16.

The CFPB in February, under the leadership of Director Kathleen Kraninger, proposed removing the ability to repay provisions from payday lending regulations that were completed in 2017, but haven’t taken effect yet.

Pahl said the research used to create the 2017 rule was too limited to ...