Letter to the CFPB on the Report of Terms of Credit Card Plans (Form FR 2572) and Consumer and College Credit Card Agreements

Dear Mr. May:

The American Bankers Association ("ABA"), representing banks across the regulated financial system, writes in regard to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ("CFPB") Paperwork Reduction Act ("PRA") request for comment regarding revisions to an existing information collection titled "Report of Terms of Credit Card Plans (Form FR 2572) and Consumer and College Credit Card Agreements" ("Request").

As an initial matter, ABA writes with appreciation for the CFPB’s prompt action to take down its credit card comparison tool (the “Comparison Tool”) that the CFPB developed under the prior Administration without express statutory authority and to the detriment of consumers and the broader credit card market. The Comparison Tool, which was populated by the Terms of Credit Card Plans (“TCCP”) survey data, created unnecessary reporting burden, without commensurate consumer benefit—and in fact created risk of confusing consumers with unexplainable, stale, and inactionable responses—and was inferior to private sector solutions. ABA applauds the CFPB’s prompt action to address this extra-statutory action that created risk for consumers and unnecessary burden on issuers.

Report of Terms of Credit Card Plans (Form FR 2572)

The Request seeks comments on the necessity, practical utility, and burden of the existing information collection of the TCCP survey data, as required by the PRA and implementing regulations. As discussed in our prior comment letters, the ABA continues to have concerns about the necessity and practical utility of the 2023 updates to the TCCP survey. Thus, we respectfully request that the CFPB work with the Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) to revert to the version of Form FR 2572 that was in effect in January 2019.

In 2022, the CFPB announced the development of the Comparison Tool and revisions to Form FR 2572 via blog post. Despite numerous efforts to engage the CFPB under prior leadership to better understand the Comparison Tool and the nature of the revisions to Form FR 2572, the CFPB failed to meet its obligations under the PRA. For example, the CFPB under prior leadership did not comply with the PRA requirement to seek comment on whether the information collected in the revised Form FR 2572 would be “necessary for the proper performance of the functions” of the CFPB and whether "the information will have practical utility." Instead, the CFPB pursued the preordained objectives announced in the 2022 blog post.5 Because of these procedural and substantive shortcomings, we respectfully request that the CFPB work with the OMB to revert to the version of Form FR 2572 that was in effect in January 2019, which is the version that predated the March 2023 changes used to populate the Comparison Tool.

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