CFPBFacts.com Blog

  1. Sep
    21
    2015

    CFPB Knew Agency Was Overestimating Discrimination in Lending

    One of the biggest criticisms leveled at the CFPB is the agency’s highly flawed method for identifying cases of discrimination in auto loans. Since auto loan applications don’t record an applicant’s race, the agency developed a proxy method of estimating which loans were made to minorities. They then used this “guess method” to penalize lenders, […]

  2. Sep
    04
    2015

    Poll Show Consumers Want More Oversight of CFPB

    A new poll shows many Americans are troubled by the CFPB’s lack of oversight. The poll, by the U.S. Consumer Coalition and Zogby Analytics, asked 3,225 “likely voters” and 3,604 adults in the U.S. their views on federal agencies. Unsurprisingly nearly a third of those polled weren’t familiar with the agency. Among those who were, […]

  3. Aug
    28
    2015

    Debt Collection Complaints Top CFPB’s Second Monthly Complaint Report

    The CFPB released its second Monthly Complaint Report this week and once again, more consumers complained about debt collection than any other consumer finance category.  Following closely was credit reporting–most consumers complained about incorrect information on their credit reports. We’ve broken down the complaints by category into a handy pie chart below (click on the image […]

  4. Aug
    07
    2015

    Court Allows Texas Bank to Challenge CFPB’s Constitutional Authority

    Challenging the CFPB’s authority has so far been a fruitless pursuit. Legislation to stem the agency’s power hasn’t moved in Congress and court challenges haven’t really gone anywhere. A new ruling by a U.S. Court of Appeals, however, may create momentum for judicial action to rein in the CFPB’s regulatory actions. Three years ago, a […]

  5. Jul
    21
    2015

    4 Years Later, Not Much Has Changed at CFPB

    It’s been five years since the passage of the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act and four years since the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. While few Americans even know the agency exists, the CFPB has quietly gathered mountains of data on the financial habits of individual consumers. After recently high-profile hacks of data from […]

  6. Jul
    15
    2015

    CFPB Unveils Consumer Complaints

    At the end of June, the CFPB released over 7,700 consumer complaints against financial companies, allowing consumers to “share their stories” anonymously. Financial institutions don’t have the opportunity to directly respond or verify the truth to these consumer accounts. However, this data is available for anyone to search, review, and utilize through the CFPB’s Consumer […]

  7. Jul
    02
    2015

    Is the CFPB collecting more private data than NSA?

    After Americans learned the extent of the National Security Agency’s (NSA) electronic surveillance program, the outrage led Congress to pass new limits on the agency’s ability to collect private citizens’ data without warrants. Those limits on government surveillance, however, don’t extend to the CFPB. The CFPB plans to monitor 95% of all credit card transactions […]

  8. Jun
    28
    2015

    CFPB Pattern of Discrimination May Be Getting Worse

    At a hearing this week in the House Financial Services Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, CFPB employees testified that the agency’s workplace environment has gotten worse since the committee began hearing allegations of discrimination by the agency last April. The President of the National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 335, which represents CFPB employees, testified that he’s […]

  9. Jun
    16
    2015

    Left-Wing Activist Groups Benefit from CFPB’s Penalties on Banks

    The CFPB has made it a goal to go after financial institutions that discriminate in lending. In fact, the agency is so focused on this goal that it doesn’t mind that its methodology for identifying discrimination in auto lending has been widely criticized and discredited as inaccurate. Instead, the agency has collected tens of millions […]

  10. May
    19
    2015

    Congress Tries to Add More Oversight to CFPB

    One of the key problems with the CFPB is that it isn’t truly accountable to Congress. Most federal agencies rely on budget appropriations from Congress, and to justify that funding they provide reports to Congress about the agency’s work. If Congress sees an agency is not performing well, it can penalize the agency by altering […]