Newsroom

Yesterday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released its biennial report on the state of the credit card market for 2019-2020, which found overall declines in credit card debt and increases in digital engagement due to changing consumer habits from the pandemic.

Other key findings from the report include:

· Consumer balances fell in 2020 due to the pandemic, experiencing the largest 6-month decline in history in the second quarter, with over 25 million credit card accounts entering into some relief program in 2020;

· Since the last report in 2019, credit card issuers have lowered the range of their daily limits on debt collection calls for delinquent cards but have increased the use of email; and

· Innovations in expanding access to credit increased with the rise of buy now, pay later products.

The report notes that the CFPB conducted a review of the regulations under section 610 of the Regulatory Flexibility Act and will release the agency’s determination of that review this upcoming Fall. In terms of other rulemaking efforts, the CFPB is expected to issue the final rule on transition away from LIBOR in January 2022. NAFCU has previously shared with the CFPB that the 2009 CARD Act has added significantly to credit unions' compliance costs.

In addition, the report notes that the CFPB is exploring options to incorporate racial data in its data sources to inform future work as existing data available does not allow the CFPB to examine the disparity in use, cost, and availability of credit cards by racial group.

The biennial report is required by the Credit Card Accountability and Responsibility Disclosure (CARD) Act and was first the responsibility of the Federal Reserve System's Board of Governors, but transferred to the CFPB with the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act. It is published every two years.