We have an expansive, vital mission: to make markets for consumer financial products and services work for Americans. But, how do we do that with limited resources?
We’ll accomplish our mission by setting goals, establishing strategies, and measuring performance. Our strategic plan outlines this information and describes how we will focus our resources on the areas where we can have the biggest impact.
What do you think?
We want your thoughts and ideas on how to improve our plan. Weigh in by emailing your comments on the plan to StrategyPlanComments@cfpb.gov by October 25, 2012.
In the past eight months, we’ve filed six amicus briefs – also known as “friend-of-the-court” briefs – in cases about federal consumer financial protection laws. These briefs allow us to share our position with courts considering significant questions about the interpretation of consumer finance laws or affecting our responsibilities. We’ve now posted all our prior amicus briefs and, starting today, we’re asking for your suggestions of additional cases for us to consider.
We’re looking for cases with one or more important legal questions about the interpretation or application of a federal consumer financial protection statute or regulation that we interpret and enforce. Strong candidates are typically cases that have been or will soon be filed in a federal court of appeals or state supreme court.
We’ve been taking your complaints on credit cards at the CFPB since we officially opened for business on July 21, 2011. Today, we released an interim report on credit card complaints. (more…)
A couple weeks ago, we asked you to submit your suggestions on building an effective new consumer bureau. Since then, we’ve been taking some of these suggestions and asking members of our team to record video responses. Some of them are pretty camera shy – and some aren’t – but once they started talking about what they do and what the consumer bureau is up to, everybody was ready to jump in.
In just those couple weeks we received hundreds of suggestions on Twitter, YouTube, and our website, ConsumerFinance.gov – and we’ve read or listened to every single one – most of them more than once.
Some of you are worried about long, complicated credit agreements. Some of you want to make sure we make financial education a priority. And some of you have ideas about how we can improve our website. The variety of responses has been the most encouraging part of this process: people are interested in the work the CFPB is going to do for American families, and they are willing to invest some time to speak up and tell us about it.
It turns out that these videos are pretty responsive to many of your suggestions and concerns. We’ve compiled a few of our favorites to share with you:
In this video, Marla Blow, Deputy Assistant Director for Card Markets, responds to a question about credit card terms:
Holly Petraeus, Assistant Director for Servicemember Affairs, offers important tips to servicemembers:
Rich Cordray, former Attorney General of Ohio and Assistant Director for Enforcement, talks about how CFPB will work with state attorneys general and other state regulators:
We’ve heard that these videos can be really helpful – so check them out, and share them with your friends and family.
Over the past week, the CFPB web team has been reading through the feedback we’ve gotten via Twitter, YouTube, and email for Open for Suggestions. Yesterday, we posted several new videos.
A number of suggestions concern financial education. Policy analyst Alejandra Lopez-Fernandini recorded a response video earlier today:
One suggestion came from a consumer who was concerned about unpredictable changes in credit card agreements. Senior policy analyst Marla Blow responds to the concerns below:
Finally, we received a Tweet about Elizabeth Warren’s calendar, which has been one of the most popular pages on our site so far. Stephanie Gorski, acting lead of our privacy and records team, talks about CFPB’s transparency efforts:
We have received hundreds of suggestions via Twitter, YouTube, and web. Keep them coming!
Since day one, our mission at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been to work on behalf of American families. The CFPB belongs to the people it serves. If you have suggestions, we want to hear them.
