The Comptroller of the Currency has announced his retirement from government service. As one of his last official acts, he addressed the ABA annual convention, sharing with the audience some astute observations and some serious warnings.
Hawke discussed regulatory burden, asking how necessary regulatory burden requirements actually are and what benefits consumers actually derive from them. He expressed the frustration that many disclosures that are carefully and expensively prepared by financial institutions "go straight from the printer to the landfill - unread, unfathomed, and unappreciated by financial consumers."
Hawke urged the industry to think about a very different approach to consumer protection, one that moves away from loading up consumers with all information possible to one that strives to provide the best and most basic information needed to make decisions. Hawke suggested that the disclosures refer consumers to websites for additional information.
Ultimately, we need to know more about what information consumers need, the format in which they need it, and how they use it. Hawke would like to see a solid study that takes a hard look at what could and should be done for consumer protection.
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