CFPB Opens Review of Enforcement Process

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has announced the next area of its operation that it will open up for review by seeking additional information from outside sources: the enforcement process.

The agency has already announced Requests for Information on its Civil Investigative Demand letter process and its administrative adjudication processes. The comment period on the enforcement process is expected to open on Feb. 12.

Among the general questions being proposed by the CFPB to help individuals triangulate their comments are:

1. Communication between the Bureau and the subjects of investigations, including the timing and frequency of those communications, and information provided by the Bureau on the status of its investigation;
2. The length of Bureau investigations;
3. The Bureau’s Notice and Opportunity to Respond and Advise process, including:
   1. CFPB Bulletin 2011-04, Notice and Opportunity to Respond and Advise (NORA), issued November 7, 2011 (updated January 18, 2012) and available
      here, including whether invocation of the NORA process should be mandatory rather than discretionary; and
   2. The information contained in the letters that the Bureau may send to subjects of potential enforcement actions pursuant to the NORA process, as exemplified by the sample letter available here;
4. Whether the Bureau should afford subjects of potential enforcement actions the right to make an in-person presentation to Bureau personnel prior to the Bureau determining whether it should initiate legal proceedings;
5. The calculation of civil money penalties, consistent with the penalty amounts and mitigating factors set out in 12 U.S.C. 5565(c), including whether the Bureau should adopt a civil money penalty matrix, and, if it does adopt such a matrix, what that matrix should include;
6. The standard provisions in Bureau consent orders, including conduct, compliance, monetary relief, and administrative provisions; and
7. The manner and extent to which the Bureau can and should coordinate its enforcement activity with other Federal and/or State agencies that may have overlapping jurisdiction.