A big name with a critical task. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) oversees a variety of services and important roles in the U.S. Covering all topics regarding money. It’s not just another government agency playing big brother, they’re informative, easy to navigate, and have a plethora of self-service, real world information. Let’s take a closer look at some of their responsibilities.
Rules and Policies
After research and public input, the CFPB holds hearings, meetings, and roundtables to ensure transparency. The costs and benefits are weighed, then provided additional time for public input and discourse of stakeholders. Once a rule or policy has been passed, the CFPB have the ominous responsibility of supporting, educating, and providing resources to help people understand the rule and policy. A secondary part of the CFPBs mission is to uphold rules by ensuring consumers and financial institutions comply with the rules in place, including the ability to hold people and institutions accountable.
Financial Education
The CFPBs website has a significant amount of self-education materials when it comes to financial decisions from buying a house to an auto loan, and college to retirement planning. There are specific guides available at no cost. Another portion of the website is filled with answers to financial questions. This includes the basics, key terminology, and ways to take action. One of the best qualities about the site and their materials is how they’ve adopted a ‘Plain Language’ policy. So, you won’t find any complicated government jargon explaining a reverse mortgage. Just plain, English verbiage.
Financial Well-Being
It doesn’t take long before you see the term “Financial Well-Being” is also part of the CFPBs focus. With ten simple questions anyone can see where they are compared to others their age, in their income range, or by employment status. No math or numbers are required in their questions, and you can review how they came up with the ten questions. Curious where you stand? Visit the site now at https://www.consumerfinance.gov/consumer-tools/ and scroll down to the section named “Get your financial well-being score.”
Data and Research
Another aspect following Financial Well-Being is the CFPBs data and research, publicly available, and easy to navigate, at your fingertips. Maybe these aren’t necessarily practical for typical consumers, though data-geeks, investors, and students can find information on subjects like mortgage performance trends. If you’re curious about the major consumer complaints in any state, head over to their consumer complaint database.
In Summary
The CFPB is an understated collection of data, knowledge, rules, and policies. They are freely available, easy to read, and meant for use of a better well-being. Take some time to peruse and discover something you didn’t know, or perhaps look at something in the financial realm in a different light. For more information on things discussed above or to learn more about the CFPB, visit https://www.consumerfinance.gov/.
