CFPB to Push for Consumer Finance Innovation, Competition

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has opened the Office of Competition and Innovation, to promote more competition and look into stumbling blocks for new marketing entrants, a CFPB press release said Tuesday (May 24).

This will replace the Office of Innovation, which used an application-based process to work on special regulatory treatment of individual companies.

The new office will put forth a broader initiative, allowing for analysis of open market obstacles and to understand how bigger players are hurting smaller ones. It will also host incubation events and making it easier for people to switch financial providers.

The release said the new office will provide various benefits, including empowering consumers  to switch providers, making it so new entrants in a market can get customers easier, researching structural problems, and looking into how bigger players gain advantage over smaller rivals.

“Competition is one of the best forms of motivation. It can help companies innovate and make their products better, and their customers happier,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. “We will be looking at ways to clear obstacles and pave the path to help people have more options and more easily make choices that are best for their needs.”

See also: CFPB Calls on States To Expand Enforcement Efforts

PYMNTS wrote that the CFPB had added a new interpretative role that will add to state enforcement actions to protect consumers. By doing this, it wants to protect more people from scams and fraud.

The report said the CFPB urging states to enforce consumer protection laws; bring enforcement cases to a range of entities beyond CFPB enforcement; and to bring cases concurrent with CFPB enforcement.

“In the years leading up to the financial crisis, federal regulators undermined states seeking to protect families and businesses from abuses in the mortgage market,” said Chopra. “Our action today demonstrates our commitment to promoting state enforcement, not suffocating it.”