InfoBytes Blog
Cordray Discusses Youth Financial Education, CFPB Responsibilities
Recently, CFPB Director Richard Cordray delivered prepared remarks at the Financial Literacy and Education Commission Meeting in Washington, DC on May 24 and at the People and Places Conference in Arlington, VA on May 31.
Financial Literacy and Education Commission (Commission). Coordinated by the Treasury Department’s Office of Financial Security, the Commission presented results from the 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment study on financial education in the U.S. and how it compares to other countries. Cordray’s opening remarks stressed the-importance of providing financial resources and educational tools empowering young people and outlined efforts the CFPB has underway, such as the Youth Financial Education resource page, the online Money as You Grow tool, and other community outreach education programs.
People and Places Conference. A keynote speaker at the conference, Cordray outlined the three main components of the CFPB’s work: (i) supervision and enforcement; (ii) implementing common-sense rules; and (iii) hearing and addressing consumer complaints to help keep companies accountable. Regarding supervisory and enforcement actions, Cordray stated that the Bureau’s activities serve to help change institutions’ practices for the better by (i) providing consistent supervision; (ii) initiating public enforcement actions to serve as a deterrent to “bad behavior”; and (iii) upholding “laws that ban unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices.” Cordray asserted that by setting expectations financial institutions must meet in their own compliance work, similar violations can be avoided. Cordray spoke next about the need to establish “common-sense rules of the road” in order to protect consumers. He used the mortgage industry as an example of how the Bureau responded to Congress’s directive for developing “much-needed reforms” by “implementing rules to govern underwriting, servicing, and loan originator compensation” and “temper[ed] these regulations for small creditors so as to ease regulatory burdens on community banks and credit unions.” Furthermore, Cordray stated the Bureau’s ability to receive and process consumer complaints is crucial to identifying, understanding, and prioritizing problems.