VIEWPOINT: Consumer Agency a Pandora's Box of Ills

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Byline: Robert M. Couch

On June 17, the Obama administration announced a plan to create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency dedicated to adopting and enforcing consumer protection regulations.

The agency would have jurisdiction over all entities engaged, directly or indirectly, in financial activities. Though well intended, the creation of such an agency fails to address the issues that led to the current economic crisis, and it would cause new problems for both businesses and consumers. It would lead to a patchwork of state laws, increase costs, encourage litigation, stifle product development and sweep up a broad group of businesses into federal regulation and examination. Many of these businesses are already adequately regulated. In short, a CFPA would create more problems than it solves.

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