One particular reason you should be concerned about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is because the bureau is concerned about you — or at least your interactions with consumers. If what you are doing is violating a federal consumer financial law, the CFPB is going to take interest and likely take action. With the amount of power this agency has, that should concern anyone who is working under the CFPB’s purview. Even if you think the bureau can’t touch you, there’s a chance it can.
When the bureau opened its doors in July 2011, it took over the regulatory authority for 19 consumer financial laws. You may be wondering why you or your company would be subject to CFPB enforcement if you see yourself as falling into one of the agency’s covered persons categories. The issue is, however, that if anything you do falls within the purview of one or more of those 19 laws, then the bureau’s authority can reach you.
“No matter who you are or what business you are in, if [the bureau has a] reason to believe that you are violating one of those particular laws, it has jurisdiction to investigate it and to investigate your role,” said Mitchel Kider, chairman and managing partner at Weiner Brodsky Kider PC, at October Research, LLC’s 2014 National Settlement Services Summit.
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