In response to a request for comment, Woodstock Institute responded to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) strategic plan, including the Bureau’s proposed mission, strategic goals, and objectives for the next four years.
The draft Plan takes a deeply troubling (but at this point, sadly unsurprising) stance favoring broad deregulation and seems to deliberately misinterpret the core purpose of the agency. To any reasonable person, the name of the agency alone should be enough to indicate that the CFPB should hold as its highest priorities protecting consumers and promoting a safe and fair market for financial services, not just reducing regulatory burden for financial service providers at every possible turn. But this Administration has wielded deregulation as a blunt instrument, to the detriment of both consumers and the regulated entities themselves, and this draft Plan is no exception.
