The CFPB recently announced via blog post that it will hold a “field hearing” on auto finance in Indianapolis on September 18 at 11:00AM.  The announcement indicates that additional details will follow, but that the hearing will include remarks from CFPB Director Richard Cordray, and that consumer groups, industry representatives, and the public are invited to give testimony.  It is open to the public, and you can RSVP here to attend in person.  A livestream of the hearing will also be available on the CFPB’s blog.

The hearing likely relates to the CFPB’s ongoing efforts to enforce so-called fair lending practices within the auto lending industry, including a forthcoming larger participant rule that would, for the first time, define which nonbank auto finance companies are subject to the CFPB’s supervisory authority.  As we previously discussed, the CFPB’s Spring 2014 Semi-Annual Regulatory Agenda again indicated the Bureau is developing a proposal to identify “larger participants” for the auto finance market.  While the CFPB indicated the formal regulatory process to define larger participants for nonbank auto lending would begin in August, it has not yet issued the proposed rule.  Pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, while the CFPB is granted authority to regulate all nonbank covered persons in the residential mortgage, private education lending, and payday lending markets, the CFPB’s supervisory authority outside of those markets only extends to “larger participant[s]” in other markets for consumer financial products or services.