Keeping It Sunny at the CFPB

By Dan Munz

What do tap water, your eyeglasses, and the Consumer Bureau all have in common?

They’re all better when they’re transparent!

Okay, that was a pretty bad joke. But it reflects something we take very seriously here at the Bureau: That transparency is a core value, and that living by it will make us a better agency. Being transparent and open to the public encourages greater accountability, and helps us achieve our most important job: making markets for consumer financial products and services work for you.

Last month, we blogged about our commitment to making sure it’s always “sunny” at the CFPB. We have already begun posting Professor Elizabeth Warren’s calendar online every month – which, it turns out, is more complicated than you might think. We’ve shared analysis and raw data about how the Credit CARD Act has impacted consumers. We even launched this website by responding directly to your suggestions.

We think that’s a pretty good start, but it’s just that – a start. Most of the real work of building an open, transparent Consumer Bureau is still ahead of us.

That’s why we’re so excited that later today, some of the Bureau’s senior staff, including Professor Warren, will meet with a group of experts who have given these issues a lot of thought. We’ve invited representatives from open government organizations to the Bureau to get their ideas about effective ways to inform members of the public about the activities of their government. The groups we’re meeting with include Public Citizen, OpenTheGovernment.org, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Judicial Watch, the Sunlight Foundation, the Project on Government Accountability, and OMB Watch. That’s a lot of transparency brainpower in one room, and we’re eager to hear what this group has to say. In keeping with the spirit of openness, we’ll report back to you next week on what we heard.

We’d also love to hear your suggestions about transparency at the Bureau, so if you have a specific idea, please feel free to drop it in the comments section below. We’re always looking for helpful ways to keep it sunny here at the CFPB.

Caldwellb02

Yes my comment is about the structure of the CFPB. PLEASE do not hire someone to head this program who has ties to Wall Street or the Federal Reserve. This would be an absolute travesty. Thank you.
- Get A Job
  
  It would be nice if Elizabeth Warren would be transparent as leader of this organization. I would like to know about her entire past – education, affiliations, board memberships, investments, employment, political views, legal actions, etc.
  
  For some reason, she wants to lead this organization but refuses to go through the Senate conformation process.
  
  Where’s the openness and transparency in that?
  - Staceylh2
    
    I don’t think Elizabeth Warren is failing to b e transparent because she refuses to go through the confirmation process. She has a job to do, and she is getting it done rather than wasting precious time sitting in hearing so members of the Senate can try and make points with their party leaders and news media by taking pot shots at her.
    
    This agency was deemed important enough to the country that the legislation was passed to form it. Now we need to give those charged with that responsibility the time and support they need to do their jobs. It’s easy to be an armchair critic, but once you wade into the issues you find out it’s not all as simple as we may want to make it.
    
    I hope the CFPB will practical, nimble, responsive, comprehensive, and balanced. That takes commitment, concentration and intelligence – which is why we need to keep politics out of it as much as possible. Let them worry about Senate confirmation after the work of building the infrastructure is done.
Get A Job

The CFPB states that it is working hard in “building an open, transparent Consumer Bureau”.

The CFPB brags that it posts a calendar of Ms. Warren’s calendar on line (although a very redacted version).

The CFPB attempts to paint itself as being very “sunny”.

How can the CFPB hold itself out as open and transparant when its leader, Elizabeth Warren, refuses to go through the Senate confirmation process? This seems very hypocritical to me. It certainly isn’t transparent – it is a stone wall.

Why isn’t Elizabeth Warren allowing herself to the standard of openness and transparancy at Senate confirmation hearings?

She and the administration are obviously holding her out as the leader of the CFPB. This is an obvious fact on this website. But through careful description of her title and role, they have managed to use political trickery to circumvent the confirmation process required for heads of major government agencies. A stone wall.

Where is the openness that?

Elizabeth Warren testified as to the following “…it is essential that the CFPB be accountable for its efforts moving forward.”

The administration has yet to allow Ms. Warren to go through the Senate confirmation process. Why not? What is there to hide? If the CFPB is to be totally transparent, then why not go through the required process to confirm her as the leader of the organization?

If Ms. Warren wants to require full and clear disclosures from financial providers, she needs to put her money where her mouth is and to fully disclose herself to the American people.

I, for one, would like to hear more about Elizabeth Warren. She should be open and transparent about her background, her affiliations, her political views, etc.

The CFPB will never be open and transparent until Ms. Warren leads by example.
Get A Job

I can’t figure out why my comments asking Elizabeth Warren to answer why she won’t allow herself to go through the Senate confirmation process keep getting blocked by this blog.

My comments do not contain any vulgar or abusive language. My comments are directly related to the subject of the blog. I use no threats or other questionable language.

Where’s the transparency and openness if my comments continuously are censored? This is supposed to be an open agency – right?
ErnestG

I have applied to the Bureau as an Examiner. I am an ex-law enforcement individual, but since have moved into finance and was an audit mgr. on the HAMP side for a year plus, have just started consulting and would be proud to work for Professor Warren and to lead the mission of the CFPB.

From an operational standpoint, I swore in the past to in my City days as a Chicago Police Officer “to Serve and Protect,” and later for a time, “…to the United States of America from All Enemies Foreign and Domestic…” My parents, family and community were proud of me. I was honored to be able to lend a hand and with understanding that I was given great gifts – accepted the difficult responsibility of staving off the crime and disorder and those that would do harm to others.

It is a responsibility not everyone understands. I think those people building thte CFB get it.

The CFPB has challenges to be faced such as: ramping up a large and agile, credible work force to do a job that will put them on the road for somtimes weeks at a time which impacts their families and communiteis. The CFPB faces political opposition (in this case a Repub. group) attempting to limit funding which would slow the growth of the Bureau. They face the challenges with building the needed oversight policieis and procedures and vetting them with other Bureau opinion and approval. They have to form a culture without having the strength of a mature workforce from which to point a direction. The CFPB has to leverage detailees (people that work for other agencies) taking them away from their day jobs while placing pressure on the other units of the Government that lent them, forcing everyone to do more with less. And when you factor in training needs, IT management, technology and getting the legal authority in palce to enforce the intentions of the law that created them – this is really hard to have enough people in place to start to make a calendar and some other points as transparent as everyone would like.

So, ease off a bit and recognize that building a Bureau from the ashes of the OTS and from the ground-up will take time, perserverance and leadership – all which will be impactful to other Bureaus, other government law enforcement functions and those persons – like Professor Warren that are mandated with the “Atlas-style” lifting of the whole Consumer World. But what a Fantastic Mission, right?!

Trasnparency will come in floods if not oceans. But, like all such efforts, it must be balanced with the PII of consumer needs and privacy needs of the companies who will be part of the evaluation process. Transparency about a calendar is really not what they are talking about – in light of Federal Congressional leaders, children and staffers being killed or injured by a crazed Citizen – a calendar cannot expose the leder to the risk of being hurt or worse. Bureaus cannot mkae every thing that they do available to the public – too much time – too much cash wasted doing that.

COI – conflict of interest: almost no one can escape the draw of Wall Street and that of the Fed Reserve, if you are successful, on the East Coast and educated. But, as long as each agency allows for retention of signed COI statements, devloves themselves from owning any of the organizations or banks being evaluated, and that document is refreshed, tracked and reviewed by an independent party – there should be no worries. As a matter of fact, some proximity to ‘the street’ and the Fed makes sense, in easing the stresses of those to be regulated by bringing someone with credibility to know what really goes on there.

Every crisis breeds enhanced regulation in the markets – but in my Midwest upbrining in education, work experience and through anecdotal discussions and evidence – this regulation was necessary in light of the unbridled lack of regulation that allowed this mortgage / credit / capital fiasco to undermine our country, our financial system and potentially our security as a nation.

We must step up each of us, face the challanges and deliver on the promise to the American people. I hope I get a call to be one of the first leaders on the ground for the CFPB. I consult right next to them in one of the Treasury buildings on the first floor. They seem like really fun and hardworking people, which are traits I bring to the table as well. That is who Warren has hired to get this thing going.

Some of us are given great gifts of knowledge, freedom and the ability to sacrifice knowing it is the right thing to do. So, if you have these gifts, come to DC and help those of us working to help the government right now. It is these gifts we need to accept. My parents fled a communist revolution, my wife’s did the same – as First Generation Citizens – we get it and enjoy our freedoms and respect those that use their freedoms as well – like these bloggers.

We stepped up for this country. Not sure why a few do not get it. It is always sunny on the right side of the law – come join us here. If the CFPB cannot give me a chance, so be it. I will still try to get hired by another agency and make my parents proud, my friends, and the communities I live in. I am ready again to do my part – do yours and become part of the solution, we all need your help.

Signed Ernest G., Chicago-born, American leader and firm Believer in Justice.
Just the way it is

Dear Get a Job . . .

The approval process like everything else is not black & white

. . . that’s just the way it is.

Court Vacancies Nominees Pending Nominees
US Court of Appeals 17 8
US District Courts 77 36
(includes territorial courts*)

How Often Have Recent Presidents Made Recess Appointments?
President William J. Clinton made 139 recess appointments, 95 to full-time positions. President
George W. Bush made 171 recess appointments, of which 99 were to full-time positions.2 On
March 27, 2010, President Barack Obama announced his intention to make 15 recess
appointments, all to full-time positions

I guess this agency can not be a good thing, because the women tasked (by the president) has not gone thru the sacred “Approval Process”. Please move on to real issues
- Get A Job
  
  I am not the person stating that her agency is sunny and transparent. Ms. Warren is.
  
  Don’t you find her refusal to answer the questions of the Senate hypocritical?
  
  Having full disclosure from a leader of an agency demanding full disclosure from financial firms is a real issue.
  
  What does Elizabeth have to hide?
  - Just the way it is
    
    You think Ms Warren is the one who did not submitt herself to the senate for confirmation. Please redirect your comments to the President.
    - Get A Job
      
      Take names and personalities out of the equation for the moment.
      
      The key point I am trying to make is there is a new regulatory agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, that is in the process of formation. This new regulator will apparently have significant responsibility for regulating financial providers and protecting consumers.
      
      This new regulator will spend over $300 million annually.
      
      This new regulator is to begin many of its key functions in July 2011.
      
      This web site proclaims this new agency to be transparent and open.
      
      With all of that, I believe it is not only reasonable, but necessary, for the person leading this new regulator to go through the proper confirmation process before the Senate.
      
      It doesn’t matter to me how many people received a recess appointment by Bush or Clinton. What’s important is now. What’s important is this is a new regulator, with new duties, and a new budget.
      
      It is not relevant who is president today or who the proposed director of the bureau is. What is important is that these people become accountable to us, the citizens, that pay their salaries and whom they are to protect.
      
      If this agency truly wants to be transparent and open, and if it wants to earn the trust of the American people, its director nominee should go through the confirmation process.
      
      This bureau doesn’t want financial service providers to skirt the rules or hide anything from consumers. We should expect no less from the leader of this agency.
- Anonymous
  
  The real issue is the U.S. Constitution. If our own federal officials will not obey the rule of law, how do they — or we — expect anyone else to?
Jeff Myers

With respect to transparency, has CFPB done some legwork to understand what info people really want to see? Many agencies attempt to be transparent by sharing lots of data in formats that aren’t very user friendly. Then, people don’t try to review or use that info, but complain that the agency isn’t transparent. Since CFPB is intended to be more oriented toward the consumer public than most other government agencies, it seems important that CFPB “get it right” when deciding what info to share, and how to share it. Thus my question: What has/will CFPB do to learn what info people really want, and how they want to get it?

Transparency Advocate

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