Mike Flood: “In addition, the Bureau has consistently tried to imply their authority would not only apply to tech companies, but…”

“In addition, the Bureau has consistently tried to imply their authority would not only apply to tech companies, but there is a chance they could bring merchants into their regulatory purview as well. The general counsel of the CFPB said in a speech during Director Chopra's tenure that merchants might be implicated as large payment players in the future if they aren't mom-and-pops. Last year, in response to a question on the record from me on this topic, the Director made the case that a merchant that incorporates payment capabilities directly into a website could potentially blur the lines between banking and commerce and, therefore, be subject to the CFPB oversight in the future. {time} 1245 However, Dodd-Frank explicitly calls for an exclusion for the merchants from the CFPB's regulatory purview. That idea that a merchant engaging in a commercial financial activity due to payment activities in a merchant's own store or website is outright ridiculous, and it represents yet another expansion of the CFPB's rapidly growing authority. Finally, I would like to highlight another major concern with CFPB examination authority of these firms and what it would bring. The firms within the scope of this rulemaking are payments firms, but some of these firms also have a social media element to their businesses.…”