CFPB Inspector General: Agency isn’t meeting investigation deadlines

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is failing to meet its goal of filing or settling enforcement actions within two years of opening an investigation, the agency’s Inspector General said in a new report.

“The percentage of enforcement actions filed or settled within 2 years fluctuated during the period, with a high of 62 percent in FY 2018 and a low of 36 percent in FY 2019,” the Inspector General said.

The IG said that several factors affected the agency’s enforcement staff’s ability to complete probes on a timely basis.

The first factor was the multiple leadership transitions that occurred during that period. The IG cited the CFPB’s Annual Performance Report which said that the agency’s multiple leadership transitions resulted in a decline in the number of investigations being filed or settled within the two-year deadline. “Interviewees stated that changes in leadership have also caused enforcement’s processes to change, such as by adding more people to the review process, and that new leadership needs time to become familiar with enforcement activities, which may result in delays,” the IG said.

 

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