The acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is reportedly mulling whether to go ahead with a multimillion-dollar penalty for alleged mortgage fraud by Wells Fargo.

Reuters reported that the CFPB and Wells Fargo had been hashing out a settlement over the bank charging potentially more than 100,000 mortgage borrowers unnecessary fees to lock in low mortgage rates.

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Acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney Mick MulvaneyMick Mulvaney to start hedge fund Fauci says positive White House task force reports don't always match what he hears on the ground Bottom line MORE, the White House budget director, said last week he’d review each of the 14 pending enforcement actions left to him by former Director Richard Cordray Richard Adams CordrayConsumer bureau revokes payday lending restrictions Supreme Court ruling could unleash new legal challenges to consumer bureau Supreme Court rules consumer bureau director can be fired at will MORE.

Mulvaney, a staunch conservative, had routinely spoken out against the CFPB as a congressman, sponsoring bills to eliminate the agency. He and fellow Republicans have accused Cordray and the CFPB of abusing its unique independence and broad power to harm the financial markets.

“The structure of the CFPB is just fundamentally flawed. Authority that I have now as the acting director really should frighten people,” Mulvaney said last week on Fox Business.



“We’re going to try and limit as much as we can what the CFPB does to sort of interfere with capitalism and with the financial services market," he said.

The acting director imposed a 30-day hiring and regulatory freeze upon assuming control of the CFPB last Monday, and just began making payments from the bureau’s civil penalties fund.

Mulvaney said he’s reviewing the various lawsuits CFPB is involved in and has already sought delays in two cases where his opinion differs from Cordray’s.



Mulvaney also said he’s analyzing the CFPB’s budget for potential savings and continuing efforts to bolster the agency’s cyber security protections.

He said the CFPB would stop collecting personally identifiable information until the bureau has a better handle on the data it stores.