(7/28/2011) - Born of the massive Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act,
signed into law a year ago, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)
officially opened last week, it's plate full and future clouded by attempts
to dilute the agency's power.
Without a director or full staff, the agency created to protect consumers
when they sign up for a mortgage, credit card or other
financial product, has already laid a strong foundation, a foundation a gang of bankers
and Republicans are anxious to undercut.
Dissident Republicans already won the first battle, politically
strong-arming the White House into choosing CFPB's creator and champion,
Elizabeth Warren, not as it's director, but as a temporary, interim
director, Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury on the CFPB.
With a record of being one of the nation's toughest consumer advocates,
Warren would have been the best and bravest choice. Unfortunately, President
Obama bowed to pressure and nominated Former Ohio attorney general Richard Cordray to run the agency and appease
Republicans who threatened to block Warren's nomination and shackle CFPB's
progress.
With the CFPB up and running, its Consumer
Response Center is accepting credit card complaints on its website, ConsumerFinance.gov.
Struggling homeowners can also get referrals to housing counselors via the
Homeowners HOPE Hotline.
The nation's first 21st-century consumer protection agency, the CFPB is
the first new government agency embedded in social networking, using
Facebook, Twitter stream, Flickr and YouTube to get the word in and out.
Over the coming months, the agency will expand its Consumer Response
Center to handle complaints about other consumer financial products and services under its jurisdiction. The agency is also
contacting large banks to put them on notice to follow the rule of consumer
law, to let them know how the agency will supervise them and how it will
enforce federal consumer financial laws.
"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," wrote Warren on the bureau's blog.
• The "Know Before You Owe Project" is a process for combining the
complex and duplicative Truth in Lending Act and Good Faith Estimate mortgage disclosure
forms into a single, useable form.
• CFPB has issued two new studies, the first study examines the
variations between the credit scores creditors use and
the scores sold to consumers by credit reporting agencies. The second report
focuses on how a consumers remittance history could be used to enhance his
or her credit score.
• Rules to implement the Privacy Act and the Freedom of Information
Act, in order to establish a process for anyone who wants testimony or
records from the CFPB for use in litigation. Also included are
confidentiality rules, describing how the CFPB will treat information it
obtains.
• Rules similar to those issued by the Federal Trade Commission and
Securities and Exchange Commission that outline how CFPB will conduct
investigations of federal consumer financial law violations.
• Rules stating procedures state officials should use to notify the
CFPB of state actions or enforcement proceedings.
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