Academic Research Council

The CFPB has announced that it is ending its closed-door meeting policy for its four advisory groups and will open the meetings to the public.  Those groups consist of the Community Bank Advisory Council, the Credit Union Advisory Council, the Academic Research Council, and the Consumer Advisory Board. 

The CFPB has stated that the change is intended “to provide more transparency and to be responsive to the requests [for more openness] we’ve received.” … Continue Reading

The CFPB has published a notice announcing that it is seeking to fill two vacancies on its Academic Research Council.  The Council is an advisory body that provides the CFPB’s Office of Research with advice and feedback on its research work.   

The notice indicates that the CFPB is looking for “tenured academics, with a world class research and publishing background, and a record of public or academic service.” … Continue Reading

I have previously voiced concerns about the CFPB’s Academic Research Council, particularly the lack of transparency surrounding the Council’s creation and the CFPB’s decision not to seek public input on appointments to the Council.  My concerns about the Council were heightened by a report appearing earlier this week in the New York Times that the Obama campaign received research-based ideas about how to “get out the vote” from a group of behavioral scientists.  … Continue Reading

In his post on the CFPB’s announcement about the appointments to its new councils, Alan Kaplinsky observed that while the CFPB provided biographies for the appointees to its Consumer Advisory Council, it did not do so for the six professors appointed to its Academic Research Council.  Given the significant influence the Academic Research Council is likely to have, the Consumer Bankers Association thought it was important for industry to know more about the six appointees and compiled biographies on each of them.… Continue Reading

The first meeting of the CFPB’s new Academic Research Council, which was held on July 27, 2012, was not open to the public.  In an article about the CFPB’s mortgage disclosure proposals that appeared in the New York Times on August 18, 2012, University of Chicago Professor and Council appointee Richard Thaler noted that he had met with CFPB staff members “last month” to discuss from a behavioral science perspective the CFPB’s proposal to integrate TILA and RESPA disclosures.… Continue Reading

The CFPB on September 12 announced the appointment of 25 people to its Consumer Advisory Board, 14 people to its Community Bank Advisory Council, 15 people to its Credit Union Advisory Council and, most significantly, six professors to its Academic Research Council.

While there is nothing very noteworthy in and of itself about the CFPB’s appointments to the Consumer Advisory Board and the Community Bank and Credit Union Advisory Councils (all of which the CFPB was required to do under Dodd-Frank), the announcement pertaining to the Academic Research Council has raised some eyebrows. … Continue Reading