What to Expect When You're Under a CFPB Investigation
– Negotiating the Scope of the CID
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ("CFPB") has investigations underway that span the full breadth of the Bureau's enforcement authority over providers of financial products and services and their vendors. Venable attorneys Jonathan L. Pompan and Alexandra Megaris write in a recent piece that if your company is the recipient of a civil investigative demand ("CID") from the CFPB the process is not an easy one. When a CID is received, the recipient first must decide whether to (1) petition the CFPB for an order modifying or setting aside the CID, or (2) negotiate the scope of the CID. These decisions must be made quickly. Pompan and Megaris walk through the early decisions that companies under CFPB investigation need to consider and several key steps involved in negotiating the scope of a CID.
Click here to read the full article and click here for information about a panel session on Consumer Financial Protection Investigations and Enforcement at the ABA Antitrust Fall Forum.
CFPB's Start-Up Style Is No Laughing Matter
"What do The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and the CFPB have in common?" asks Venable attorney Jonathan L. Pompan in a recent article at www.Venable.com/cfpb/publications. While executives at the broad array of companies now subject to oversight by the agency may hope the answer is a sense of humor, Pompan, citing a recent Washington Post story, says the answer is that there is at least one Web designer who has worked at all three places. That designer is indicative of the unusual team of government employees at the CFPB.
The article, Pompan writes, details the CFPB's use of a "classic start-up style" and attributes the CFPB's "beta" projects to an approach that encourages staff to work quickly and make corrections later. The approach, he says, is as good an explanation as any for the CFPB's practice of often placing proposals on its website without always simultaneously utilizing the Federal Register and the notice and comment process provided for in the Administrative Procedures Act.
Pompan writes that the CFPB website provides a window into an area that matters very much but is easily underestimated. For affected companies and other stakeholders, the "beta" approaches and CFPB website are no laughing matter.
Click here to read the full article written by Venable attorney Jonathan L. Pompan.
CFPB: August Roundup
Turning its focus from mortgage regulation to its enforcement authority, last month the CFPB announced yet another significant penalty against a credit card issuer related to the sale of "add on" products. Additionally, the CFPB held the first meeting of its Consumer Advisory Council, issued examination guidelines for credit reporting agencies and announced its five-year strategic plan.
Click here to read the full Roundup written by Venable partner Suzanne Fay Garwood.
CFPB Exam Procedures for Consumer Reporting Companies
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau continues to move forward with implementation of its nonbank supervision program by releasing the procedures it will use in examining credit bureaus and other consumer reporting companies. According to the Bureau, "these procedures are a field guide for CFPB examiners looking to check that these companies are following the law." The CFPB's authority to supervise consumer reporting companies took effect September 30, 2012. According to the CFPB, its supervisory authority will cover an estimated 30 companies that account for about 94 percent of the market's annual receipts.
Click here to read the full article written by Venable attorney Jonathan L. Pompan.
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