Regulators: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Prerequisite:   Before you complain to regulators

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ‘s mandate is to educate and ensure that consumer protection laws are followed when executing transactions in these main categories:  loans (auto, home), bank accounts, money transfers, credit scores, and debt collection.   It seems to be a non-securities version of FINRA.   Or put another way, CFPB is to consumer banks accounts, loans, and financial services what FINRA is to securities products or CFTC/NFA is to futures and forex derivatives products.   

CFPB operates under the supervision of the Federal Reserve System of the US.  It was created by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act; Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 ).  The purpose of the CFPB is to promote transparency and fairness for mortgages, credit cards, and other consumer financial products and services. The CFPB sets and enforce clear, consistent rules that allow banks and other consumer financial services providers to compete on a level playing field and that let consumers see clearly the costs and features of products and services.

So one major way that this regulator is useful is in the enforcement data that it tracks.  In 2021, over $13.5 billion in consumer relief, which includes a combination of monetary compensation, cancelled debts, [loan] principal reductions, and other relief ordered via enforcement.  This helped over 170 million people.  And over $1.8 Billion in civil monetary penalties against financial companies who violated CFPB.  This is impressive given that over 10,000 complaints per week are submitted.

There is other data as well that is useful and quite detailed for trend analysis.  For example, you can look at deidentified data of actual complaints to get a very good idea of what kind of behavior the company is engaging in or being accused of.   Here is an example:

  Im making this complaint against CREDIT MANAGEMENT LP for identity theft. I have never given CREDIT MANAGEMENT LP any permission to use any of my identifying information to commit mail fraud by contacting me about an alleged debt they claim I owe. I am refusing to pay this debt pursuant to 15 USC |1692c ( c ). I am demanding a cease and desist of all illegal activity, any communication and collection activity, of this and any alleged debts until CREDIT MANAGEMENT LP can provide me with sufficient documentary evidence that I have any legal obligation to pay them. If this documentary evidence can not be produced and CREDIT MANAGEMENT LP continues its collection efforts, I will file for litigation for actual damages caused and CREDIT MANAGEMENT LP will be held criminally liable for aggravated identity theft pursuant to 18 USC 1028A, extortion, theft by deception, securities fraud, and mail fraud.

here is another one:

HIPAA Violations the bottom line is that all these violations relate in some way to the loss of HIPAA protected health information HIPAA is any demographic information that can be used to identify patient Common examples of PHI include names dates of birth addresses phone numbers email addresses Social Security numbers of insurance ID numbers of health care records and full facial photos to name a few. All of these accounts are identity theft. Definition of Identity Theft Noun The act of fraudulently obtaining and using another persons identifying information or personal financial documents, such as a signature or bank/TURST account, usually for the purpose of financial gain. Identity theft is the act of stealing another persons personal identifying information in order to gain access to his financial resources, or obtain access to other benefits, such as money, credit, or insurance benefits. Identity theft, sometimes referred to as identity fraud, is a crime that carries serious consequences.

Imagine reading 10 examples with a similar level of detail.   These would not only help the consumer to spot a trend with a specific company (or industry), but you could even research the solutions that the victim is pursuing or has pursued to see if it could help you towards achieving justice for yourself.   The database has over 3 million complaints stored.  Now the complaint’s accuracy for truthfulness can never be guaranteed, but it can still be useful to track trends and patterns of scammers.

#RegulatedFool

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