The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has published a new “humility pledge” to guard against what its current leadership said was “weaponization” of its past supervision.
In a statement, the bureau alleged that under its prior leadership, exams were done with “thuggery.” CFPB supervisors will read the pledge to each supervised entity before beginning examinations.
Among other things, the pledge states:
- The CFPB “will focus its supervision resources on pressing threats to consumers, particularly service members and their families, and veterans, and in the areas that are clearly within the bureau’s statutory authority.”
- Supervised entities will receive advance notice of scheduled examinations.
- The CFPB will no longer “ask for expansive data sets or other information which may seem unrelated to the exam or include information inconsistent with bureau priorities.”
“In sum, the bureau’s goal is to work collaboratively with the entities to review entities’ processes for compliance and/or remedy existing problems,” according to the pledge. “The bureau is doing so by encouraging self-reporting and resolving issues in supervision, where feasible, instead of via enforcement.”
