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Shown: Elizabeth Warren with NAFCU board, executive team when she was working to "stand up" the CFPB.

Feb. 28, 2013 – Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., on Wednesday expressed support for credit unions and urged them to "use their clout" in communicating to lawmakers their preference for the CFPB's rulemakings, which include small-lender exemptions, over Dodd-Frank rules that lack such exemptions.

Speaking at a credit union industry conference in Washington, Warren said the exemptions specifically written by the CFPB benefit credit unions more than the more complex, automatic default rules of Dodd-Frank, which lack specific exemptions for small institutions. By contrast, the CFPB rules offer protection to both consumers and small financial institutions, she said. Without these small-institution exemptions, "the world of financial regulation is a lot more complicated and there is a lot more uncertainty."

Warren said the CFPB's ability-to-repay/qualified mortsgage regulation, for example, provides small-institution exemptions where the statute does not.

"If you think the CFPB's latest rules and the exceptions for small lenders make sense, and if you like the CFPB [rules] better than the automatic Dodd-Frank rules with no exceptions, I hope you will say so," she urged.

Warren also urged support for confirmation of Richard Cordray to a five-year term as CFPB director.

Warren was a key architect of the Dodd-Frank Act's provisions establishing the CFPB and served as the administration's first point person on the bureau as it was being built up. NAFCU advocated for credit unions' interests while Warren was at the bureau and continues to do so with the current leadership at the CFPB.