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Written by
Karen Bennett
Karen Bennett is a senior consumer banking reporter at Bankrate. She uses her finance writing background to help readers learn more about savings and checking accounts, CDs, and other financial matters.
Edited by
Nell McPherson
Nell McPherson is the former banking editor at Bankrate, where she led a team of reporters dedicated to helping readers make the best decisions about their savings and checking accounts, CDs and money market accounts.
Bankrate logoAt Bankrate we strive to help you make smarter financial decisions. While we adhere to strict editorial integrity , this post may contain references to products from our partners. Here's an explanation for how we make money .
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Bankrate logoYou have money questions. Bankrate has answers. Our experts have been helping you master your money for over four decades. We continually strive to provide consumers with the expert advice and tools needed to succeed throughout life’s financial journey.
Bankrate follows a strict editorial policy, so you can trust that our content is honest and accurate. Our award-winning editors and reporters create honest and accurate content to help you make the right financial decisions. The content created by our editorial staff is objective, factual, and not influenced by our advertisers.
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Bankrate.com is an independent, advertising-supported publisher and comparison service. We are compensated in exchange for placement of sponsored products and services, or by you clicking on certain links posted on our site. Therefore, this compensation may impact how, where and in what order products appear within listing categories, except where prohibited by law for our mortgage, home equity and other home lending products. Other factors, such as our own proprietary website rules and whether a product is offered in your area or at your self-selected credit score range, can also impact how and where products appear on this site. While we strive to provide a wide range of offers, Bankrate does not include information about every financial or credit product or service.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is a federal regulatory agency whose mission is to protect consumers from harm caused by unfair, deceptive or abusive practices from financial companies.
The CFPB works to educate consumers about types of financial products and services, and it enforces federal laws by fining financial companies that it deems have participated in illegal activities.
Institutions the CFPB supervises include banks and credit unions with assets over $10 billion, as well as nonbank mortgage originators and servicers, payday lenders and private student lenders.
When it comes to banking, the CFPB has taken action against banks when it determines they have charged illegal overdraft fees. It has also fined banks for things like opening accounts without customers’ permission and failing to credit full deposit amounts to accounts.
The CFPB is the government agency responsible for enforcing consumer financial laws and serving as a consumer watchdog when it comes to financial products.
The agency imposes fines on financial companies it determines are violating the law. Through such fines, billions of dollars have been returned to affected consumers, according to the CFPB website.
The CFPB also has staff devoted to taking consumer complaints about issues in the financial marketplace. Staff members assemble the details of a complaint and then seek a resolution by communicating directly with the company named in the complaint.
The CFPB was created in 2010 under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act). Passed during the Obama administration, the Dodd-Frank legislation sought to make the U.S. financial system safer for consumers by helping to prevent the type of acts that led to the financial crisis of 2007-2008.
The global crisis occurred when the subprime mortgage lending market collapsed. At this time, the bubble burst that had been created due to risky lending practices. Parties considered responsible for the crisis include banks, investment banking firms, insurance companies, lenders and credit rating agencies.
Before the CFPB existed, consumer protection responsibilities fell under seven different federal agencies. The CFPB brings all aspects under a single director who is appointed by the president of the United States.
The agency is currently run by director Rohit Chopra, and its divisions include:
The CFPB has fined various banks for charging what it deemed “illegal surprise overdraft fees,” which consisted of charging overdraft fees even after indicating to customers their account had sufficient funds at the time a transaction took place.
If you feel you’re the victim of a financial scam or other unfair practices, and you’ve contacted the company involved directly without a reasonable answer, filing a complaint with the CFPB could be your next step.
Once you submit your complaint, the CFPB will send it directly to the company. Companies usually respond within 15 days, according to the CFPB. The agency also publishes information regarding your complaint (without identifying you) in its consumer complaint database.
The CFPB says that every week it sends more than 10,000 complaints to companies for their responses. It also forwards complaints elsewhere, when it feels another agency would be better suited to assist in a complaint.
Arrow Right Senior consumer banking reporter
Karen Bennett is a senior consumer banking reporter at Bankrate. She uses her finance writing background to help readers learn more about savings and checking accounts, CDs, and other financial matters.
