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ICYMI: CFPB’s Failure to Protect Consumers

Washington, November 30, 2017


The Fox Business Channel this morning reported on two Financial Services Committee staff reports issued earlier this year that reveal the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was asleep at the wheel when it came to protecting consumers from the Wells Fargo fraudulent accounts scandal.

The reports, which can be read here and here, “reveal a bureau slow to react and an investigation that failed to be either comprehensive or independent,” Fox Business Channel reported. “Far from protecting consumers from bank fraud, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ignored early warnings of trouble at Wells Fargo.”

An internal CFPB “Recommendation Memorandum” for then-Director Richard Cordray – improperly withheld from the Committee for over a year – revealed the Bureau failed to fully and adequately investigate Wells Fargo. Instead, the Bureau rushed to settle with Wells Fargo for less than 1 percent of the Bureau’s own estimate of the bank’s statutory civil monetary penalty. 

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