December 2010: CFPB Implementation Team Reaches 100 Employees

By ssimpson2

Each day this week, we will feature information about an important milestone in the establishment of the new consumer bureau. Today’s post is about staffing up the bureau. Read more of this series.

The CFPB is a brand-new government agency, and all new things have to start somewhere. In the case of the consumer bureau, it started with several employees on an implementation team shortly after the Dodd-Frank Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by the President. Of course, the CFPB will have many responsibilities – promoting financial education, gathering and analyzing data on the consumer financial markets, and enforcing federal consumer financial laws, among others. With so many jobs to do, the CFPB needs more than just a few employees.

The arrival of the 100th team member occurred less than five months after the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act. It served as yet another tangible indication of the consumer bureau’s growth. Today, CFPB team members are hard at work on the nuts and bolts – getting computers and laptops, writing job descriptions, and building an IT platform – and thinking about policy priorities and how to design an effective enforcement strategy. As the team grows, it will take on more people who will be cops on the beat – supervising the biggest banks and the payday lenders, mortgage servicers and other non-bank financial companies.

The implementation team consists of people from a variety of backgrounds, from across the country, at various points in their careers. It also includes employees who have previously worked at many other government agencies. This is fitting, since the CFPB will consolidate consumer protection authorities currently fragmented across seven agencies.

The implementation team commemorated the arrival of the 100th team member with a potluck dessert party, which also doubled as a holiday celebration. The highlight of the party was a creative interpretation of ’Twas the Night Before Christmas, reworked to reflect the upcoming July 21 deadline, called The Night Before Transfer.

Thomasapollock

Another waste of the tax payers money. what is it about that the law makers don’t understand about reducing tax payer expenditures and the deficit? Dodd and Frank our a perfect example of politics run amuk. lets get rid of them, their 100 new employees and the cfpb and knock off the bullshit about how it will protect the consumer.
- littleG
  
  CFPB is here to help and protect consumer and their interest, not big corporations and crony companies. They are like the police in the finance world. We don’t need them all the time, but when in a dispute they are absolutely essential.
  - Get A Job
    
    littleG,
    
    Can you point to a specific instance in which the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has protected any consumer?
    
    Also, what is a “crony company”?
- Patdenny49
  
  The average consumer has little chance in the world of deceptive and fraudulent practices that so many corporations and companies have gotten away with since the de-fanging of regulators from the late 1980s through 2010. That’s why the wealthy have gotten wealthier at the expense of those in the bottom 60%. It’s robber-baron-time all over again.
- Ehkerr
  
  You are not informed. Elizabeth Warren has a proven agenda. She is an honest broker. Do some research before blowing smoke.
  - Anonymous
    
    Mr Pollock is merely parroting the likes of the Great Blovinator and his ilk. The sad thing about his comment is that it reflects the proud ignorance of so many. “I don’t know nothin’ bout gumment but I know what I think.”
- Anonymous
  
  Gee wizz where to start. Since you don’t seem to know much about the history of our financial institutions and are unaware of the reasons financial regulation was instated to address wrongs at the turn of the nineteenth century lets just start with the current situation. Our financial institutions engaged in fraudulent and until recently illegal practices which effectively made bad paper(unsound stocks and bonds) this country’s second biggest export. This led to the current crisis. The government lent huge sums of money it could ill afford to these banks and brokerage houses. However rather than using this money they used it to buy up other institutions. This creates a situation wherein they can continue the same practices that created this mess but with much greater consequences. Without strong and vigilant regulation our financial institutions can and undoubtedly will destroy our economy for their short term gain.
  Is that clear enough?
Dboals

This Bureau deserves all of our support. Let’s hope their efforts can help to avoid another economic dive caused by the finance and housing sector. The poor and middle class will end up suffering again and the “positioned” and “protected” rich will again profit.
http://www.myspace.com/_lovedaddy_ JohnnyMorales

I hope this department becomes well-known and respected by Americans in General.

One thing it has to do though is monitor comments for obvious political attacks or just disallow comments.

It ads confusion at the starting point.
Ouizy

Dear Elizabeth, My biggest hope is that you can do something about our underwater mortgages. “Making Home Affordable” is a farce. I know, I have it. We need GOVERNMENT low,fixed interest mortgages, no baksters involved, forgiving all or part of the “underwater” part which is not our fault! Please plead with the White House for this. Too many have lost their homes and more will and with that they loose their lives. HELP

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