Law Firm FOIAs, Publishes CFPB Enforcement Policies and Procedures Manual

On September 21, 2016 the Venable LLP law firm (Venable) published a very interesting blog entitled: A Look Inside the Official CFPB Enforcement Policies and Procedures Manual. 

The blog discusses how the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) promotes its “transparency” and yet, unlike the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) which had for years made available its Operating Manual as a public record, the CFPB manual was nowhere to be found on it comprehensive and user friendly website.

The manual was released in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by Venable and portions of the copy made available to Venable were redacted. The Enforcement Policies and Procedures Manual that Venable received can be found here.

The manual is 390 pages. Per the Venable blog:

“Following sections on document maintenance and retention policies, the manual includes a discussion of its policies governing the conduct of investigations, litigation, remedies, adjudicative proceedings, working with other law enforcement partners, practice guidance, and administrative issues, as well as model forms and sample language used in investigations and litigation by CFPB enforcement staff.

A memo written by then Enforcement Director Richard Cordray (now Director) setting out the "enforcement action process" also is included, which sets out the notification, consultation, and approval policies and procedures that the Office of Enforcement follows when taking critical action throughout the various stages of the enforcement process.”

The blog should be required reading for all Compliance professionals. The 390 page manual will take weeks to fully digest. The Table of Contents is fairly detailed allowing the reader to quickly move to desired sections. The manual includes sample forms from everything from opening an investigation to a sample Temporary Restraining Order. Every ARM firm should download a copy.

Reviewing the manual when considering prior CFPB enforcement actions connects the dots from investigation to enforcement.

The ARM industry should say a collective “thank you” to Venable for requesting the document and making it available for download.