Is the CFPB subject to Trump’s executive orders?

The Wall Street Journal contemplates whether the CFPB is subject to the slew of recent executive orders:

A memo issued Jan. 20—Inauguration Day—ordered “executive departments and agencies” to temporarily suspend filing new regulations and delay the implementation of pending rules to give President Donald Trump’s appointees the chance to study them.

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Another executive order signed Monday directs at least two existing regulations to be repealed for each new one introduced.

Neither the White House nor the CFPB has clarified its position regarding whether the two memos apply to the agency, leaving the future uncertain for some major regulations affecting areas such as mortgage disclosure and servicing as well as prepaid cards. Part of the issue is that the CFPB’s exact status is being questioned. The watchdog was created by the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial-overhaul law as an independent agency. But in a pending court case, federal judges in October ruled its current single-director structure unconstitutional and ordered it to be restructured into an executive agency. The decision isn’t effective as the CFPB has appealed the case, filed by mortgage lender PHH Corp. Some experts say this doesn’t prevent the president from taking action if he believes the bureau is unconstitutional.

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