The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Real Impact in 2016 USA Economic Protecting American Families from Unfair, Abusive Financial Practices

Before the crash that devastated our economy, there were seven different regulators with authority over the consumer financial services marketplace. Accountability was lacking because responsibility was diffuse and fragmented. In addition, many mortgage lenders and mortgage brokers were almost completely unregulated. Many responsible American families have paid the price for an outdated regulatory system that failed to adequately oversee Payday Lenders, Credit Card Companies, Mortgage Lenders and others allowing them to take advantage of American Consumers. That’s why the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was created to overcame the big bank lobbyist to protect and empower American families with the strongest consumer safeguards ever. Wall Street reform law created an independent agency to set and enforce clear, consistent rules for the financial marketplace. (CFPB) The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is setting clear rules and will ensure that the financial Firms are Accountable and held to high standards. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau supervises Banks, Credit Unions, Payday loan companies and will enforced Federal Consumer Financial Laws: “The piles of forms needed for a regular mortgage can be overwhelming, and many brokers have taken advantage of that confusion to give borrowers loans they did not need or could not afford. The CFPB has launched a program called Know Before You Owe, an effort to combine two federally required mortgage disclosures into a single, simpler form that makes the cost and risks of the loan clear and allows consumers to do comparison and shop for better prices. For the first time, there is ongoing federal oversight of both nonblank companies and banks in the mortgage market to protect borrowers from unfair, deceptive or other illegal mortgage lending practices.” The fall of 2008 a financial crisis of a scale not seen in generations left millions of Americans unemployed and resulted in trillions in lost Wealth. The broken financial regulatory system was a principal cause of that crisis. It was antiquated and allowed large parts of the financial systems to operate with no oversight which it allowed some irresponsible lenders to use hidden fees and fine print to take advantage of under privilege consumers. To make sure that a crisis like this never happens again, President Obama signed the Consumer Protection Act and Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform in to law. Dodd-frank will prevent the excessive risk taking that led to the Financial Crisis. The law provides common sense protections for Under privilege consumers, creating a new consumer watchdog to prevent mortgage companies and banks from exploiting consumers. These new rules have build a safer, more stable financial system, one that provides a robust foundation for lasting economic growth and job creation. HOLDING WALL STREET ACCOUNTABLE The financial crisis was the result of a fundamental failure from Wall Street to Washington. Some on Wall Street took irresponsible risks that they did not fully understand and Washington did not have the authority to properly monitor risk taking at the largest firms. When the crisis hit, they did not have the tools to break to break apart a failing financial firm without putting the American Taxpayer and the entire financial system at risk. Financial Reform includes a number of provisions that will curb excessive risk taking and hold Wall Street accountable. Taxpayers will not have to bear the cost of Wall Street’s irresponsibility: If a firm fails in the future it will be Wall Street not the taxpayers that pays the price. THE VOLCKER RULE Separates the proprietary trading from the business of banking and will ensure that banks are no longer allowed to own, invest, or sponsor hedge funds, private equity funds, or proprietary trading operations for their own profit, unrelated to serving their customers. Responsible trading is a good thing for the markets and the economy, but Firms should not be allowed to run hedge funds and private equity funds while running a Bank. Reform will constrain the growth of the largest financial firms ending bailouts and restrict the riskiest financial activities and create a mechanism for the government to shut down failing financial companies without precipitating a financial panic that leaves taxpayers and small businesses in to Bankruptcy.