CFPB Enforcement Plans Span ‘Full Breadth’ of Agency’s Authority

The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is conducting probes of companies that cover the entire range of the agency’s authority, which includes banks and non-bank financial firms.

“Enforcement has endeavored to focus its investigative resources on the violations of law that cause the greatest harm to consumers,” the bureau wrote in its semi-annual report, published today. “The investigations currently under way span the full breadth of the Bureau’s enforcement jurisdiction.”

The inquiries involve actions initiated by the bureau as well as those inherited from other regulators or resulting from consumer complaints, according to the report. So far, it has concluded one public enforcement action, resulting in a $210 million settlement with McLean, Virginia-based Capital One Financial Corp. (COF)

As of June 30, the agency had 889 staff, a number that includes about 230 who transferred from other federal agencies, according to the report. By that same date, it had spent $247 million in the 2012 fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30, according to the report.

To contact the reporter on this story: Carter Dougherty in Washington at cdougherty6@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Maura Reynolds at mreynolds34@bloomberg.net