As we all know Americans everywhere are worried about the economy, their mortgages, their bank accounts, their credit cards, and their jobs.

Last week I was on a televised town hall that ran on the CNBC network. The topic was "Who's Protecting Our Money." Judging from the calls and the emails into the show, not to mention several questions from the audience, there's a lot of anxiety and uncertainty out there, and some down-right fear. And people are looking to their government – regulators and law enforcement – for help and protection.

As a bank regulator, I see each and every state attorneys general as an essential partner in answering the call. So I'm delighted to be here today to visit with you, and to talk about ways we can pull together to reduce the fallout from the credit crisis, and the recession that it triggered.

These days, consumer protection is on everybody's mind. A failure to promulgate and enforce stronger consumer protection rules applying to all mortgage lenders contributed significantly to this crisis. And unfortunately, in policing mortgage lending practices, instead of working together, federal and state officials were too often at odds.

We must work together now. Mortgage fraud continues to be a significant problem. Scammers are moving into foreclosure prevention. During tough economic times like these, the American consumer can be easy prey for new scams and abuses.

Sources of high cost, short term credit including subprime credit cards and payday loans warrant heightened vigilance. We need to redouble our efforts to make sure that consumers are treated fairly and protected. And we need to do it together.

I view consumer protection as central to a bank regulators' mission. Effective consumer protection bolsters peoples' confidence in the banking system, which is critical to revitalizing overall trust and confidence in the economy.

At the FDIC we're very active in many consumer areas.

A top priority for nearly two years has been encouraging mortgage loan modifications. Like you, we saw early on the widespread deterioration of mortgage lending standards and the corresponding need for wide scale, systematic restructuring of unaffordable loans.

Unfortunately, we came up short in this call. And the resulting cascade of unnecessary foreclosures has put huge downward pressure on home prices, and that's hurting everybody.

Tomorrow, the Obama Administration will launch its very broad program to help millions of borrowers at risk of losing their homes. The President's program includes a standard, national loan modification protocol that very much tracks the model the FDIC has been using to modify thousands of loans at IndyMac Federal Bank in California.

Early on you embraced creative solutions.

Homeowners across the nation are benefiting from the FDIC's close working relationship with you in addressing our housing problems. The agreement with Countrywide and Bank of America is a case in point, which is now making affordable and sustainable loan modifications available to at-risk borrowers.

I greatly appreciate your advocacy and your support for this common sense approach to preventing unnecessary foreclosures. It now is the core of the President's plan.

You also were early advocates of clear and transparent reporting for loan modification efforts. As we all know too well, the devil is in the detail.

Unfortunately, there were some who were unwilling to listen to your good ideas on defining modifications, and on making sure the reporting was accurate and meaningful. But that will change with the President's plan which will require much more granular reporting of loan modifications, as you have long advocated.

Our reporting at IndyMac, which now covers over 11,000 loan modifications, and the state reporting efforts, have led the way. Far too many "mods" reported in the press were nothing but recapitalization of past due principal and interest and other short term "fixes" that frequently raised payments instead of lowering them.

These "modifications" have not performed well, creating the impression that all loan mods are doomed to failure. The jury is still out on redefault rates and to be sure, a worsening economy will mean even more mortgages will become delinquent. But studies to date have suggested much higher success rates when the modification results in a meaningful payment reduction to an affordable level.

Enforcement and third parties