The CFPB & UDAAP: A "Know It When You See It" Standard? 2014 Year-End Update

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) continued and expanded reliance on its sweeping authority to prohibit unfair, deceptive, and abusive acts or practices (UDAAP)¹ continues to command the attention of financial institutions and financial services companies regulated by the agency. As promised by CFPB Director Richard Cordray,² the CFPB has defined UDAAP primarily through enforcement actions, along with a few agency-issued supervisory findings and guidance bulletins. The number of CFPB UDAAP enforcement actions nearly doubled from 2013 to 2014. In 2014, the CFPB made public 23 enforcement actions based in whole or in part on alleged UDAAP violations.

To assist regulated and potentially regulated entities in understanding how the CFPB will exercise its UDAAP authority, we issued our "Know It When You See It" Client Alert in June 2014. That Alert included a chart listing the specific acts and practices that the CFPB had alleged and/or identified as