The CFPB will provide much-anticipated protections for consumers.
The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently announced a program to catch persons and businesses violating financial regulatory laws. It particularly seeks tips from company employees and insiders who know of an employer’s financial services violations.
The CFPB hopes that if it can learn of direct evidence from those in the know, it can quickly react to credible information before waiting for statistical blips driven by consumer complaints.
The CFPB
Congress created the CFPB in the wake of recent economic collapse. As a new federal agency, the CFPB was given broad powers to enact regulations to prevent financial abuses. It is especially required to address the financial abuses that gave way to wholesale collapse of financial institutions who bet on and against risky financial products.
Although its mandate includes heady subjects such as derivatives, credit default swaps, and exotic mortgages, the CFPB is also responsible for reigning in abusive debt collection, unfair credit reporting practices, and mortgage fraud.
The CFPB asks that tipsters email whistleblower@cfpb.gov information that can be verified. It requests that identifying information also be provided though it recognizes the uncomfortable nature of turning in an employer. But, the CFPB says employees can learn of their whistleblower rights, if any, from the Department of Labor’s Whistleblower Protection Program website.
CFPB Promises Limited Confidentiality
In any event, the CFPB promises limited confidentiality as permitted by federal laws. It provided a telephone number for anonymous tips: 855-695-7974. Its email address and telephone number are not intended to receive complaints, however, as those should be directed to www.ConsumerFinance.gov.
Both tips and complaints can be about credit cards, mortgages, or other consumer financial product the CFPB said.