Geithner, Bernanke at odds on consumer protection

WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke staked out opposing sides Friday in a turf war over who should protect Americans from shady mortgage lending, abusive credit card fees, payday loans and other high-cost or risky financial products.

The White House wants to create a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency to oversee a vast range of financial products, stripping the Federal Reserve and other banking regulators of their current authority for policing them.

“I think it’s very hard to look at that system and say that it did anything close to an adequate job of what it was designed to do,” Geithner told the House Financial Services Committee. He cited the collapse of the housing and credit markets because of high-risk subprime mortgages made to borrowers who didn’t understand and couldn’t afford them.

Bernanke, appearing before the same committee after Geithner, argued that the Fed should retain its consumer protection powers regarding consumer products.

“Without extensively entering the debate,” Bernanke said, Congress should be aware of “some of the benefits that would be lost through this change,” including the Fed’s consolidated resources for also ensuring the safety and soundness of banks.

Geithner brushed aside the Fed chairman’s concerns as part of a typical Washington turf battle.

“With great respect to the chairman and other supervisors who are reluctant to do this, they are doing what they should, which is defend the traditional prerogatives of their agencies,” Geithner said. “I think frankly all arguments should be viewed through that prism.”

While that’s understandable, Congress has to intervene, Geithner added. “Inherent in your job is to think about how to make those choices,” he said.

Other regulators testifying with Bernanke said they, too, had concerns about the administration’s plan. Sheila Bair, chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, suggested that the new agency be allowed to write rules that protect consumers, but that existing regulators be tasked with enforcing them.

When asked by Rep. Carolyn Maloney whether such an arrangement would work, Geithner said no, because enforcement would remain uncoordinated across the government.

The House committee’s chairman, Rep. Barney Frank, and Senate Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd both support the plan to create a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency. But the effort has slowed amid opposition from bankers and other financial industry leaders, as well as the regulators, Republicans and some Democrats.

Frank has delayed a vote on the measure until after the August recess, but maintains he has the votes to pass it.

Rep. Jeb Hensarling and other Republicans on the panel said Friday they thought it was foolish to give unelected bureaucrats the authority to determine what financial products are fair.

“They will be empowered to decide which credit cards we can receive, which home mortgages we are permitted to possess, and even whether we can access an ATM machine,” Hensarling said.

House Republicans have offered an alternative that would strip the Fed of its regulatory role and abolish the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision. In their place would be a single regulator for depository institutions, which would include an office focused on consumer protections.