3.1: National Dialogue
Take a leadership role in shaping the national dialogue on consumer protection in financial services, addressing the rapidly
emerging issues that affect today’s consumers, strengthening consumer compliance supervision programs when required, and remaining
sensitive to the burden on supervised institutions.
Other Information:
This objective will be pursued in part through the following actions: • Inform the policy development, applications analysis,
and decision-making processes with timely information obtained from consumer compliance examination processes and analyses
of trends in complaint activity. • Maintain a constructive presence within the financial services industry and among state
and federal regulators, consumer and community advocates, financial sector trade groups, researchers, and other interested
parties through participation in meetings, seminars, and other appropriate outreach venues. • Address emerging consumer financial
services issues with high-quality research and analysis, responsive examination policies, revised or new regulations, timely
industry guidance, and effective consumer education campaigns. Discussion The Federal Reserve has the responsibility for enforcing
a wide range of consumer protection laws and regulations that govern financial transactions. Enforcement of these laws is
handled primarily through regularly scheduled risk-focused consumer compliance examinations. When evaluating a state member
bank’s or bank holding company’s expansionary proposals, the Board takes into account the applicant’s record of compliance
with consumer protection laws and regulations, including the Community Reinvestment Act, before making its decision on such
applications. The Board also enforces consumer laws and regulations through the System’s investigation and resolution of consumer
complaints related to state member banks. To improve the complaint resolution process, the Board is currently enhancing its
systems for handling consumer complaints to increase their effectiveness and efficiency. Outreach efforts focus on promoting
state member bank compliance with, and informing consumers of their rights and protections under, consumer protection laws
and regulations. These efforts also include the development of consumer information products to assist individuals in developing
a better understanding of complex financial services products.
Indicator(s):
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