Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Many analysts cite the predatory lending practices of major home lenders, such as Countrywide Financial (purchased by Bank of America in 2008), as a contributing factor to the financial crisis. Countrywide, the country's largest home lender, was sued by several states in 2008 for predatory practices. As a settlement the company agreed to provide $8.4 billion in loan relief to some 400,000 borrowers. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was created to help prevent such industry abuses and to integrate federal regulations protecting individual consumers into one agency.
Elizabeth Warren, then a special adviser instrumental in the bureau's formation, explained in House testimony that CFPB's overall goal was "making markets for consumer financial products and services work in a fair, transparent, and competitive manner." She also listed the bureau's priorities as follows: mortgages, credit cards, financial education, consumer complaints, information technology, and supervision, enforcement, and fair lending.
The CFPB has drawn substantial criticism from Republican lawmakers, some of whom helped delay the Senate confirmation process of Warren and then Richard Cordray for director. GOP criticism largely centered on CFPB's powers; Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) said the bureau's director had "unprecedented authority over the American people without any checks."
Warren won the Massachusetts Senate seat in November 2011, and sits on that body's Banking Committee. Cordray was confirmed by the Senate after a lengthy confirmation battle in July 2013. Meanwhile, the broadness of CFPB's powers has been challenged by banking groups in court, and Republican lawmakers have introduced bills to eliminate CFPB or curtail its funding.
