Consumer Advocates Cry Foul On CFPB’s Equifax Stance

President Donald Trump and his administration are facing complaints from consumer protection advocates, who are advocating for a reopening of the investigation into the Equifax data breach.

According to Reuters, the call from consumer advocates came after the news service reported Mick Mulvaney, the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), dialed back the investigation into the Equifax data breach that was started by former CFPB director Richard Cordray.

Mulvaney, according to Reuters, is scaling back the probe despite the fact that the breach exposed the personal information of 145.5 million people, including Social Security numbers and other information and 209,000 credit card account numbers. Sources told Reuters that Mulvaney pushed back against issuing subpoenas against Equifax, which the report noted was a routine step when getting involved in a full-scale inquiry. The CFPB has also halted a test into how Equifax protects its data, noted Reuters, adding that it turned down offers from the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, all of which offered to help with the on-site examinations of Equifax. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is examining the breach, and the company may face financial penalties. This would be their second dance with the FTC: Equifax faced a $393,000 settlement in 2012. It’ll probably be more this time around.

“The (Trump) administration should get on the side of consumers and focus on making sure hacks like the #EquifaxBreach don’t happen again,” tweeted Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat, according to Reuters.

Meanwhile, The National Consumer Law Center told Reuters the CFPB should be the leading government agency in the Equifax data breach. “With half of the U.S. population victimized, you think there’d be universal agreement that Equifax should be held accountable for its incompetence,” said Attorney Chi Chi Wu in the report.