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Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)


Self Description

January 2012: "The central mission of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is to make markets for consumer financial products and services work for Americans — whether they are applying for a mortgage, choosing among credit cards, or using any number of other consumer financial products.

The consumer bureau is working to:

  • Educate
    An informed consumer is the first line of defense against abusive practices.

  • Enforce
    Like a neighborhood cop on the beat, the CFPB supervises banks, credit unions, and other financial companies, and we will enforce Federal consumer financial laws.

  • Study
    The consumer bureau gathers and analyzes available information to better understand consumers, financial services providers, and consumer financial markets.

Above all, this means ensuring that consumers get the information they need to make the financial decisions they believe are best for themselves and their families—that prices are clear up front, that risks are visible, and that nothing is buried in fine print. In a market that works, consumers should be able to make direct comparisons among products and no provider should be able to build, or feel pressure to build, a business model around unfair, deceptive, or abusive practices.

Core functions

The consumer bureau is working to give consumers the information they need to understand the terms of their agreements with financial companies. We are working to make regulations and guidance as clear and streamlined as possible so providers of consumer financial products and services can follow the rules on their own.

Congress established the CFPB to protect consumers by carrying out Federal consumer financial laws. Among other things, we:

  • Conduct rule-making, supervision, and enforcement for Federal consumer financial protection laws
  • Restrict unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices
  • Take consumer complaints
  • Promote financial education
  • Research consumer behavior
  • Monitor financial markets for new risks to consumers
  • Enforce laws that outlaw discrimination and other unfair treatment in consumer finance"
http://www.consumerfinance.gov/the-bureau/

Third-Party Descriptions

July 2012: "NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- In its first public enforcement action, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced it is fining Capital One Bank for pressuring and misleading two million customers into buying additional products when they opened their credit card accounts."

http://money.cnn.com/2012/07/18/pf/capital-one-refund/index.htm

June 2012: "The website, created by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, will begin by posting grievances against credit card companies, and will eventually include complaints regarding mortgages and student loans."

http://money.cnn.com/2012/06/19/pf/credit-card-complaints/index.htm

January 2012: "In March, another leading debt collection company, West Asset Management, agreed to pay $2.8 million, the largest civil penalty ever levied by the F.T.C., to settle charges that its collection techniques violated the law. The commission charged that West Asset’s collectors often called consumers multiple times a day, sometimes using rude and abusive language, about accounts that were not theirs. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the F.T.C. now share enforcement authority for debt collection companies, though the new bureau has a power that the F.T.C. did not: it can write new rules for debt collectors. But F.T.C. officials said that debt collection enforcement would remain a top priority."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/31/business/ftc-fines-a-collector-of-debt-2-5-million.html

Relationships

RoleNameTypeLast Updated
Owned by (partial or full, past or present) Treasury Department/Department of the Treasury Organization Jan 31, 2012
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Organization Executive (past or present) Richard Cordray Esq. Person Jan 31, 2012

Articles and Resources

Date Fairness.com Resource Read it at:
Jan 25, 2013 Court Rejects Obama Move to Fill Posts

QUOTE: In a ruling that called into question nearly two centuries of presidential “recess” appointments that bypass the Senate confirmation process, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday that President Obama violated the Constitution when he installed three officials on the National Labor Relations Board a year ago.

 New York Times
Jul 18, 2012 Capital One to pay $210 million in fines, consumer refunds

QUOTE: Cardholders who enrolled in a payment protection or credit monitoring product -- or who tried to cancel one of these products but were persuaded by a call center representative to keep it -- on or after August 1, 2010, will be refunded the money they paid for the product, as well as any finance charges, over-the-limit fees or interest paid....The latest action marks the first enforcement for the bureau since it began regulating credit cards, mortgages and consumer reporting agencies as part of the Dodd-Frank regulatory reform last year.

 CNN/Money Magazine
Jun 19, 2012 Online credit card complaint database to debut

QUOTE: A new online database...created by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, will begin by posting grievances against credit card companies...."Disclosing every complaint, without any indication of the veracity of the complaint, is inherently misleading," wrote Fred R. Becker Jr., president of the National Association of Federal Credit Unions.

 CNN/Money Magazine
Jan 30, 2012 F.T.C. Fines a Collector of Debt $2.5 Million

QUOTE: The Federal Trade Commission signaled on Monday that it would continue to crack down on debt collectors who harass consumers for money they may not even be legally obligated to pay...Asset Acceptance, one of the nation’s largest debt collection companies, had agreed to pay a $2.5 million civil penalty to settle charges that the company deceived consumers when trying to collect old debts.

 New York Times