Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
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Coordinates: 38.898091°N 77.040591°W Consumer Financial Protection Bureau The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is an agency of the United States government responsible for consumer Consumer Financial protection in the financial sector. CFPB's jurisdiction includes Protection Bureau banks, credit unions, securities firms, payday lenders, mortgage- servicing operations, foreclosure relief services, debt collectors, and other financial companies operating in the United States. Since its founding, the CFPB has "engaged the 21st century" by using technology tools to monitor how financial entities used social media and algorithms to target consumers.[3]:531–532,537 In advancing its core consumer finance mission through enforcement and rulemaking, the CFPB has engaged with the data economy in a number of ways.[3]:531–32 The CFPB's creation was authorized by the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, whose passage in 2010 was a legislative response to the financial crisis of 2007–08 and the subsequent Great Recession.[4] The CFPB's status as an independent agency has been subject to many challenges in court.[5] In June Agency overview 2020, the United States Supreme Court found the single-director Formed July 21, 2011 structure removable only with-cause unconstitutional, but allowed Jurisdiction United States the agency to remain in operation. Headquarters Washington, D.C., U.S. 38.898091°N Contents 77.040591°W Role Employees 1,540 (2019)[1] $10 billion assets benchmark Annual US$533 million (FY History budget 2019) Proposed amendments Agency Dave Uejio, Acting [2] 2017 dispute over acting director executive Director Regulatory activities Key Dodd–Frank Wall Mortgages document Street Reform Retirement and insurance investments and Consumer Public outreach Protection Act List of directors Website www Legal challenges .consumerfinance .gov (http://www.con Controversy sumerfinance.gov/) Amendments See also References Further reading External links Role According to former Director Richard Cordray, the Bureau's priorities are mortgages, credit cards and student loans.[4][6] The CFPB qualifies as a large independent agency that was designed to consolidate its employees and responsibilities from a number of other federal regulatory bodies, including the Federal Reserve, the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the National Credit Union Administration and even the Department of Housing and Urban Development.[7][8]:12,22 The bureau is an independent unit located inside and funded by the United States Federal Reserve, with interim affiliation with the U.S. Treasury Department. The CFPB writes and enforces rules for financial institutions, examines both bank and non-bank financial institutions, monitors and reports on markets, as well as collects and tracks consumer complaints.[6] The CFPB opened its website in early February 2011 to accept suggestions from consumers via YouTube, Twitter, and its own website interface. According to the United States Treasury Department, the bureau is tasked with the responsibility to "promote fairness and transparency for mortgages, credit cards, and other consumer financial products and services".[9] According to its web site, the CFPB's "central mission...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".[10] In 2016 alone most of the hundreds and thousands of consumer complaints about their financial services—including banks and credit card issuers—were received and compiled by CFPB and are publicly available on a federal government database.[11] $10 billion assets benchmark Once a financial institution acquires $10 billion in assets, it falls under the guidance, rules, and regulations under the CFPB. The Bank will be known as a CFPB regulated bank. The CFPB will examine the institution for compliance with bank regulatory laws.[12] History In July 2010, Congress passed the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, during the 111th United States Congress in response to the late-2000s recession and financial crisis.[4] The agency was originally proposed in 2007 by then Harvard Law School professor Elizabeth Warren, who later became a US senator.[13] The proposed CFPB was actively supported by Americans for Financial Reform, a newly created umbrella organization of some 250 consumer, labor, civil rights and other activist organizations.[14] On September 17, 2010, President Obama announced the appointment of Warren as Assistant to the President and Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to set up the new agency.[15][16] Due to the way the legislation creating the bureau was written, until the first Director was in place, the agency was not able to write new rules or supervise financial institutions other than banks.[7] On July 21, 2011, Senator Richard Shelby wrote an op‑ed for The Wall Street Journal affirming his continued opposition to a centralized structure, noting that both the Securities Exchange Commission and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation had executive boards and that the CFPB should be no different. He noted lessons learned from experiences with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as support for his argument.[17] Politico interpreted Shelby's statements as saying that Cordray's nomination was "dead on arrival".[18] Republican threats of a filibuster to block the nomination in December 2011 led to Senate inaction. The CFPB formally began operation on July 21, 2011, shortly after President Obama announced that Warren would be passed over as Director in favor of Richard Cordray,[19] who prior to the nomination had been hired as chief of enforcement for the agency.[20] Elizabeth Warren, who proposed and established the CFPB, was removed from consideration as the bureau's first formal director after Obama administration officials became convinced Warren could not overcome strong Republican opposition.[21] On July 17, President Obama nominated former Ohio Attorney General and Ohio State Treasurer Richard Cordray to be the first formal director of the CFPB.[22] However, Cordray's nomination was immediately in jeopardy due to President Barack Obama 44 Senate Republicans vowing to derail any nominee in order to announces the nomination of Richard Cordray as the first director encourage a decentralized structure of the organization. Senate of the CFPB on July 18, 2011 Republicans had also shown a pattern of refusing to consider regulatory agency nominees.[23] Since the CFPB database was established in 2011, more than 730,000 complaints have been published.[11] CFPB supporters include the Consumers Union claim that it is a "vital tool that can help consumers make informed decisions".[11] CFPB detractors argue that the CFPB database is a "gotcha game" and that there is already a database maintained by the Federal Trade Commission although that information is not available to the public.[11] On January 4, 2012, Barack Obama issued a recess appointment to install Cordray as director through the end of 2013. This was a highly controversial move as the Senate was still holding pro forma sessions, and the possibility existed that the appointment could be challenged in court.[24] This type of recess appointment was unanimously ruled unconstitutional in NLRB v. Noel Canning.[25] On July 16, 2013, the Senate confirmed Cordray as director in a 66–34 vote.[26] Cordray resigned in late 2017 to run for governor of Ohio. The Financial CHOICE Act, proposed by the House Financial Services Committee's Jeb Hensarling, to repeal the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, passed the House on June 8, 2017. Also in June 2017, the Senate was crafting its own reform bill.[27][28] Testimony in US Congressional hearings of 2017 have elicited concerns that the wholesale publication of consumer complaints is both misleading and injurious to the consumer market. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) said at one such congressional hearing, "Is the purpose of the database just to name and shame companies? Or should they have a disclaimer on there that says it's a fact-free zone, or this is fake news? That's really what I see happening here." Bill Himpler, executive vice president of the American Financial Services Association, a trade group representing banks and other lenders responded "Something needs to be done." "Once the damage is done to a company, it's hard to get your reputation back.[11] Mick Mulvaney, as acting director of the CFPB, removed all 25 members of the agency's Consumer Advisory Board on June 5, 2018, after eleven of them held a press conference on June 3 in which they criticized him.[29] On February 13, 2021, President Joe Biden formally submitted to the Senate the nomination of Rohit Chopra to serve as director of the CFPB.[30] Proposed amendments On July 11, 2013, the CFPB Rural Designation Petition and Correction Act (H.R. 2672; 113th Congress) was introduced into the House of Representatives. The bill would amend the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act to direct the CFPB to establish an application process that would allow a person to have their county designated as "rural" for purposes of federal consumer financial law.[31] One practical effect of having a county designated rural is that people can qualify for some types of mortgages by getting them exempted from the CFPB's qualified mortgage rule.[32][33] On September 26, 2013, the Consumer Financial Protection Safety and Soundness Improvement Act of 2013 (H.R. 3193; 113th Congress) was introduced into the United States House of Representatives.[34] If adopted, the bill would have modified the CFPB by transforming it into a five-person commission and removing it from the Federal Reserve System.[35] The CFPB would have been renamed the "Financial Product Safety Commission". The bill was also intended to make it easier to override the CFPB decisions.