Blog

An update on results provided under the Bureau’s No-Action Letter on alternative data and machine learning

The Bureau’s new Office of Innovation is proposing a “Disclosure Sandbox” to give companies leeway to test new disclosures or delivery methods that may better serve consumers.

We are launching a research pilot in collaboration with Credit Karma to improve understanding of consumer financial well-being.

Our first-ever no-action letter is being issued to Upstart.

Many new financial innovations rely on people choosing to give a company access to their digital financial records held by another company. If you’re using these kinds of services, we’d love to hear from you. Make your voice heard.

We released the results of a Project Catalyst research project finding that offering a small incentive to prepaid card users to put some of their money into a savings wallet doubled uptake of the wallet.

Take a look around and you’ll see that the consumer financial marketplace is experiencing constant and rapid change. New technologies and insights can impact the way we borrow, save, transact, and receive information we need about finances. This environment can pose benefits and risks to consumers. Consumer-friendly innovation can drive down costs, improve transparency, and make people’s lives better. On the other hand, new products can also pose unexpected risks to consumers through dangers such as hidden costs or confusing terms.

Today, we’re announcing that as part of Project Catalyst, we’ll be working with H&R Block to evaluate practices to promote consumer saving behavior during tax time.

We’re announcing a research pilot aimed at assessing the potential impact of early intervention credit counseling. We know that defaulting on credit card debt is a very stressful event for anyone and impacts consumers’ ability to access credit in the future. We’d like to use this opportunity to explore what ways may help consumers better manage their credit card debt and avoid default.

We have finalized a new trial disclosure policy, which allows companies to apply for a waiver to test potential disclosure improvements on a trial basis. The new policy is one more tool at our disposal, which is good news for consumers and companies. The tests will provide us with data that will help inform improvements to disclosure rules.