BCFP Name Change Could Cost Companies Regulated by Agency $300 Million

Officially changing the name of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection would cost the companies regulated by the agency more than $300 million, according to a published report, which obtained a copy of an internal analysis conducted by the regulator.

The costs would go toward covering changes that needed to be made to internal databases, regulatory filings, and disclosure forms that had the new name. The changes necessary to comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Electronic Funds Transfer Act, and “certain mortgage regulations” would cost companies about $100 million per rule, according to the report.

Updating its own name would cost the BCFP between $9 million and $19 million, according to the report.

Acting Director Mick Mulvaney started referring to the agency as the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection earlier this year, after taking over from former director Richard Cordray. From its inception in 2010 through earlier this year, the agency was known as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The logo on the agency’s website still reflects its name as the CFPB. But there are references to both the CFPB and the BCFP on the site, which can be confusing to some.

“We changed the name because it’s the name in the statute,” Mulvaney said back in June. “And if … your whole theme is going to be, ‘We’re going to follow the statute,’ I thought it was a good, small way, but a very visible way, to send a message.”

Since being named acting director, Mulvaney has also signed off on a new seal for the agency and rearranged the letter’s in the agency’s headquarters to reflect his preferred nomenclature for the agency.

The agency is planning on updating its website to reflect the name change, an update that should be finished by March 2019, according to the analysis.