Top 10 List: How the CFPB Works for Consumers

Illinois PIRG Education Fund Celebrates CFPB’s 4th Birthday with New Webpage

Illinois PIRG Education Fund

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) turns 4 today. To celebrate and increase public awareness of the agency, Illinois PIRG Education Fund released a new webpage, “Meet the CFPB: Just Ten of the Ways It Works for You.”

“Before the CFPB started its operations 4 years ago, consumers who had problems with financial companies were at the mercy of those companies. Now, we have a cop on the beat.” said Abe Scarr, Director of the Illinois PIRG Education Fund.

Some key accomplishments and resources highlighted on the list:      

• When companies break the rules, the CFPB takes action to protect consumers and gets their money back, over $10 billion so far.
• The CFPB has taken over 600,000 complaints and publishes them online, along with responses by the complained-about companies.
• The CFPB protects all financial consumers but also has special offices to fight discrimination and  protect service members, older Americans and students .

“We’re also excited that the CFPB continues to improve its tools based on our recommendations. Just last month it began publishing detailed consumer stories in the complaint database. And last week it started publishing a monthly report summarizing the number of complaints and the worst companies in the database,” said Scarr.