Growing CFPB: A Governance Success Story

Yesterday I had the pleasure of welcoming my good friend, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director Richard Cordray, to the Governance Studies Program here at Brookings. He announced an important new CFPB initiative, “Owning a Home.” This latest CFBP governance innovation will, I think, have transformative positive effects on the U.S. home mortgage market, which as Rich noted is “the single largest consumer financial market in the world.” We had a capacity crowd in the building, and the event was also livestreamed by Brookings, carried by CSPAN and followed on Twitter, and garnered extensive media coverage. Our conversation and the lively audience Q-and-A covered the new initiative, mortgage issues, and a wide range of other topics.

One of the toughest challenges that we research here in Governance Studies is setting up a new federal agency.  Director Cordray has led his team in mastering that challenge in the three years since he took the helm of the CFPB as its first director.  Having worked in the White House on the administration’s proposal for Dodd-Frank, including the CFPB, I can say that the new agency has done all we hoped for, and then some. “Owning a Home,” is just their latest accomplishment, with more to come.

Watch the conversation with CFPB Director Richard Cordray’s below.