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Competition and innovation at CFPB

Our mission is to promote competition and innovation that benefits consumers in the financial products and services market.

We aim to fulfill this statutory mandate by:

  • Identifying structural problems that block new competitors from entering the market
  • Using data to strengthen competition and gauge how market innovation impacts consumers
  • Working with stakeholders to identify and challenge existing market structures that harm consumers
  • Coordinating with Federal, State, and international regulators on matters related to competition and innovation

Stay informed about our regulatory coordination

The CFPB partners with other financial regulators across the nation and around the world to foster a competitive and innovative environment for consumer financial products and services.

American Consumer Financial Innovation Network

The American Consumer Financial Innovation Network (ACFIN) helps Federal and State officials coordinate efforts to facilitate innovation and further objectives such as consumer access, competition, and financial inclusion. The network also seeks to help regulators keep pace with innovation to help ensure consumer financial services markets are free from fraud, discrimination, and deceptive practices.

Learn more about ACFIN

Join ACFIN (for Federal and State officials and regulators)

Global Financial Innovation Network

The Global Financial Innovation Network (GFIN) seeks to provide a more efficient way for companies to interact with regulators as they look to scale new ideas. GFIN is also looking to create a new framework of cooperation among financial services regulators around the world.

Learn more about GFIN

Competition Coordination with Other Federal Agencies

We also work closely with other government agencies on competition issues both bilaterally and through The White House Competition Council . You can use the information below to address concerns or complaints regarding competition issues related to these partner agencies.

Federal Trade Commission

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) works to protect consumers by preventing anticompetitive, deceptive, and unfair business practices through law enforcement, advocacy, and education. For information about submitting questions or concerns about antitrust violations to the FTC, visit their website. To report instances of consumer fraud, scams or bad business practices, visit https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/ .

The FTC also provides resources and guidance about the application of the U.S. antitrust laws to promote transparency, foster understanding and encourage compliance with these laws. You can find those resources here.

Department of Justice

The Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division works to enforce and provide guidance on antitrust laws and principles. The DOJ accepts complaints about potential antitrust violations and anticompetitive activity through the Antitrust Division’s Report Violations page.

Securities and Exchange Commission

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) works to protect investors by maintaining fair, orderly, and efficient markets. You can use the SEC’s online Tips, Complaints, and Referrals (TCRs) system to report concerns about anticompetitive behavior.

The National Association of Attorneys General

The National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) was founded to create a forum for state attorneys general to discuss a common approach to antitrust issues. All 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, have an attorney general who serves as the chief legal officer in their jurisdiction.

If you’d like to bring an antitrust matter to the attention of your local attorney general, NAAG’s Find My AG tool can help you find the best way to get in contact.

Public Convenings

To further the CFPB’s competition and innovation goals, the office holds short, intense problem-solving sessions to research and propose new solutions. During these public convenings, we invite entrepreneurs, investors, and technology professionals to challenge existing market structures that harm consumers and develop solutions to make it easier for consumers to navigate financial markets.

One example of these public convenings are CFPB tech sprints, which aim to:

  • Develop actionable technology-focused solutions to a variety of regulatory and consumer protection challenges
  • Harness technology to reduce burden, improve results, and create greater efficiencies across financial markets
  • Explore how technology can reshape compliance and speed effective interaction between regulators and financial institutions

Visit the Tech Sprints page to learn more.

Ideas for CFPB Rules that Could Enhance Competition or Innovation?

The CFPB responds to all petitions for the issuance, amendment, or repeal of CFPB rules, as required by the Administrative Procedure Act. For more information on how to submit a petition under that process, please see Petitions for Rulemaking.

We are accepting applications under our No-Action Letter and Compliance Assistance Sandbox Policies. A No-Action Letter states that the CFPB is exercising its supervision and enforcement discretion not to bring an action regarding a particular product under a particular law. A Sandbox Approval similarly creates a liability safe-harbor for certain specific products under identified laws. The CFPB is not considering applications from firms that are repeat offenders. The CFPB is not accepting applications for products that are primarily designed to evade the law, and will only consider applications that articulate a real market problem or unmet need that a novel product or service would solve.

We also accept applications under the Trial Disclosure Policy. Under this policy, companies can obtain a safe harbor for testing disclosures that improve upon existing disclosures for a limited period of time while sharing data with the CFPB.

If you are interested in the Trial Disclosure Policy, please contact us before you submit a formal application.

A Note on Engaging with the CFPB

As stated in the Trial Disclosure Policy, No Action Letter Policy, and Compliance Assistance Sandbox Policy, the No Action Letters, Sandbox Approvals, and Trial Disclosure Policy Waivers issued by the Bureau in connection with a granted application are limited to the factual and legal scope stated in those formal documents and the recipient may reasonably rely on any Bureau commitments made in those documents.

Parties who contact the Bureau in connection with a potential or pending Trial Disclosure Policy application should bear in mind the following important points about the Bureau’s assessment process under the innovation policies:

  1. Bureau staff limit their assessment of any potential or formal application (and of any material submitted in connection with the foregoing) to the factual and legal scope of the formal document issued by the Bureau.
  2. Bureau staff comment (or lack of comment) on any potential or formal application (and on any material submitted in connection with the foregoing) is informal, not binding on the Bureau, not determinative of the outcome of the application process, and has no legal consequence whatsoever.
  3. These documents do not limit in any way private enforcement or enforcement by state enforcers.

Granted Applications

The CFPB publishes all applications that have been processed and granted under our innovation policies. You can find the full list of these applications here.

How We Handle Your Information

Our handling of information you share with the Office of Competition and Innovation is governed by applicable law , which includes the Freedom of Information Act and the Bureau’s Rule on Disclosure of Records and Information. We’ll assert those exemptions to protect your information wherever appropriate.