The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau earlier this year established a task force to recommend to the CFPB director ways to improve federal consumer finance law. Although the CFPB does not regulate auto and truck dealers that assign finance and lease contracts to unrelated third-party finance sources, it does regulate finance sources, which can have a significant effect on their dealer clients.
 
To ensure the auto dealer perspective is provided to the task force, the NADA and the National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers this month filed comments with the CFPB that made a series of recommended improvements to federal consumer finance law for the task force to consider. Among these was a recommendation that the CFPB and agencies with regulatory and enforcement authority over auto and truck dealers establish a safe harbor providing that dealers and finance sources that faithfully adopt and implement the optional NADA/NAMAD/AIADA Fair Credit Compliance Policy and Program are deemed to be in compliance with the federal Equal Credit Opportunity Act.
 
Federal agencies already have adopted elements of the fair credit compliance policy in consent orders with both dealers and finance sources, against which they have taken enforcement actions. The NADA will continue to urge them to adopt a safe harbor recognizing this means of protecting against discrimination while promoting competition in the marketplace.