WASHINGTON–The GAO is recommending the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau implement a systematic process for prioritizing risks to consumers and that it further consider how to use its available policy tools—such as rulemaking, supervision, enforcement, and consumer education—to address these risks.
The recommendations are made in a GAO report that examines how the CFPB is fulfilling its Dodd-Frank Act mandate to has routinely monitor the consumer financial markets to identify potential risks to consumers related to financial products and services.
“In 2015, CFPB initiated a bureau-wide process for using market data and other information to set policy priorities related to addressing risks to consumers,” the GAO said in its report. “However, CFPB has not yet decided whether it will continue to use this process to set priorities. CFPB currently lacks a systematic, bureau-wide process for prioritizing financial risks to consumers and considering how it will use its tools—such as rulemaking, supervision, and consumer education—to address them. Federal internal control standards state that management should use quality information to achieve agency objectives and that it should also identify, analyze, and respond to risks related to achieving those objectives.”
Implementing a bureau-wide prioritization process could help to ensure that CFPB effectively focuses its resources on the most significant financial risks to consumers and enhances its ability to meet its statutory consumer protection objectives, the GAO said.
The GAO said the CFPB has not agreed or disagreed with its recommendations, but has “agreed with the importance of having processes in place to prioritize and address consumer financial risks.”
For the full report, go here: https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-19-158