Obama Administration Proposes Specifics for Consumer Agency

Yesterday, the Department of the Treasury sent to Congress specific language for a bill that would create the Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

The agency will be dedicated to looking out for American families when they take out loans or use other financial products or services – with a mission to promote access and protect consumers from unscrupulous practices across the market. This new agency will implement and enforce the new credit card bill signed into law by President Obama and Congress and have authority to combat the worst abuses in mortgage markets. This legislation creates an agency to promote transparency, simplicity, fairness, accountability, and access – laying the cornerstone for the effort to fundamentally reform our system of financial regulation.

In an article titled "Banks Balk at Agency Meant to Aid Consumers", Edmund L. Andrews writes for the New York Times that "banks and mortgage lenders are placing top priority on killing President Obama’s proposal to create a new consumer protection agency."