Happy Birthday to CFPB

Floor Speech

Ms. WARREN. Thank you, Mr. President.

I am here today to say happy birthday to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. This week marks 4 years since Dodd-Frank was signed into law and 3 years since the consumer agency opened its doors.

The consumer agency was built to be a new kind of regulatory agency, one that would stand up for America's families, not for big banks or credit card companies.

The consumer agency was not popular with big banks and their friends in Washington. The financial services industry spent more than $1 million a day fighting tooth and nail against financial reforms and they vowed to kill the consumer agency before it was ever born. But thanks to the work of grassroots consumer groups across the country that worked very hard and got organized, we pushed back against the big banks' armies of lobbyists and lawyers, and we won. We succeeded in building a strong independent consumer agency with the tools necessary to protect consumers against the tricks and traps hidden in the fine print of mortgages, credit cards, and student loans.

Under Rich Cordray's leadership, the staff of the CFPB has made amazing progress since it opened. This little agency has already forced big financial institutions to return more than $4 billion to 15 million consumers they cheated, and it has helped tens of thousands of consumers resolve complaints about their financial institutions. It has put in place rules to protect consumers from a range of dangerous financial products and to make sure that companies cannot put out the kinds of deceptive mortgages that contributed to millions of foreclosures.

Recently the CFPB shared stories from people all across the country who have reached out to the agency for help with financial issues. One of these stories is from Ari, an Iraq veteran from Hull, MA. Ari and his father Harry told their story to CFPB. While serving in the military, Ari took out a car loan advertised directly to servicemembers. The dealership promised Ari that he would be able to afford the loan, but after Harry read the fine print, he figured out this was a terrible deal. So Harry filed a complaint with the CFPB and the agency's investigation helped to uncover scams targeting men and women in uniform. Ultimately, the consumer agency ordered the auto lenders to refund about $6.5 million to the servicemembers they cheated, and to agree to stop these practices immediately.

This is just one example of how people are fighting back, using the tools of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It is also an example of how the consumer agency is standing up for families who have been targeted by scams and unfair practices. Together families and the agency are starting to clean up the market for consumer credit.

Sure, there is a lot left to do. The consumer agency still has important rules to put in place regarding payday lending, debt collection, and arbitration clauses. The biggest banks are dramatically bigger than they were during the financial crisis, and there is still too much risk in our system and too much need for reform. We need to keep pushing for changes that will make our financial system more stable and more secure to protect consumers and to keep our economy safe.

Stories such as Ari's and Harry's show that the consumer agency works and that the agency empowers people. In a badly tilted financial marketplace, the agency is giving consumers a fighting chance. This week is an opportunity to highlight these accomplishments and a reminder of how we can make Washington work for families all across this country.

I yield the floor.

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