In defense of CFPB

The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau is the one single agency of federal government with the exclusive goal of protecting me and you. After spending 30+ years in a role as a consumer finance advocate, I feel a strong affinity to this young like-minded government agency. The CFPB was created as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act to help level the field a bit when individuals are battling with large powerful banks and financial services companies. More than anything else, over the past six years since it’s creation the CFPB has slowed the widening of the wealth gap in this country. (Granted, the wealth gap is still widening but not as quickly as a result of CFPB).

Now Trump is trying to emasculate the CFPB by appointing a chief who is avowed to destroy it. Congress passed this Dodd-Frank law creating the agency to protect us from a future crisis like Trump.

Many reasonable people think that Dodd-Frank bill that created the CFPB went too far in other financial services and banking regulation. But it is not reasonable to think that disempowering the CFPB is good for ordinary Americans.


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