An Accountable Consumer Bureau
Last week, Professor Warren testified before Congress on our progress in building the consumer bureau. She talked about the many ways in which the CFPB is accountable to Congress, and to you, the public we’re here to serve.
From her testimony:
“The CFPB was designed to increase accountability by consolidating into a single agency the core consumer financial protection functions that had existed across the federal government. Under the old system, seven different federal agencies were responsible for consumer financial protection. Those agencies had other responsibilities as well and consumer financial protection was not anyone’s top priority. The tangle of seven agencies failed to create effective rules and left gaping holes in oversight. There were also basic problems of accountability. Because it was no one’s primary responsibility, it was more difficult to hold any single agency accountable. The CFPB will be directly responsible to the public for performing those core functions. Accountability was a central policy rationale for the establishment of the CFPB, and it is essential that the CFPB be accountable for its efforts moving forward.”