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ARTICLE · 31 JANUARY 2020

CFPB Announces Policy Regarding Prohibition On Abusive Acts Or Practices

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On Friday, January 24, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau published a Policy Statement clarifying how it intends to exercise its authority to prevent abusive acts or practices under the Dodd-Frank Act.

United StatesConsumer Protection
Ori Lev
Ori Lev
Stephanie Robinson
Stephanie Robinson
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On Friday, January 24, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ("Bureau" or "CFPB") published a Policy Statement clarifying how it intends to exercise its authority to prevent abusive acts or practices under the Dodd-Frank Act. According to CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger, the purpose of the Policy Statement is to promote clarity, which in turn should encourage both compliance with the law and the development of beneficial financial products for consumers. The Policy Statement describes how the Bureau will use and develop the abusiveness standard in its supervision and enforcement work, pursuant to a three-part, forward-looking framework. Under the framework, the Bureau will: (1) generally rely on the abusiveness standard to address conduct only where the harm to consumers outweighs the benefit, (2) avoid making abusiveness claims where the claims rely on the same facts that the Bureau alleges are unfair or deceptive, and (3) not seek certain types of monetary relief

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