One-tenth of the way though her five-year term, Kathy Kraninger, the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is taking her first victory lap, in the form of a press release touting what the agency has accomplished during her first six months on the job.
The list of accomplishments and directives the CFPB has undertaken during Kraninger’s first six months is lengthy, featuring 17 accomplishments in the area of consumer education, 13 enforcement and compliance actions, and 11 areas where the CFPB has modernized, clarified, or reduced the burden of rules.
There are a number of items directly related to the credit and collection industry which made the lists, including:
- Educated consumers on debt collection, including steps they can take to resolve a debt, telling the difference between a legitimate debt collector and scammer, and top debt collection questions answered;
- Received and handled 170,000 consumer complaints;
- Filed a law suit against a debt collection firm for violating the Consumer Financial Protection Act and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act;
- Took action against a student loan servicing company that engaged in unfair practices that violated the Consumer Financial Protection Act;
- Secured over $12 million in redress for consumers and $22 million in Civil Money Penalties;
- Announced changes to policies regarding Civil Investigative Demands (CIDs) to ensure they provide more information about the potentially wrongful conduct under investigation;
- Issued the first proposed rulemaking to implement the requirements and prohibitions applicable to debt collectors under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act since it was passed in 1977;
“It is an honor and privilege to serve American consumers. As Director, my focus is to prevent harm to consumers by using all the tools Congress gave us, including education, regulation, supervision and enforcement. I look forward to building on the efforts and progress of these first six months,” said Director Kraninger, in a statement.
The press release is the latest salvo in a number of public appearances for Kraninger, who made her first television appearance earlier this week, and who is scheduled to speak at Washington University in St. Louis later today. Sponsored by the Social Policy Institute, Kraninger’s participation will be to discuss increasing economic stability among low-income tax filers.
Kraninger spent much of her first months on the job touring the CFPB’s regional offices and meeting with stakeholders from both consumer advocacies and companies in the financial services industry.
