On February 7, 2018, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a Request for Information (“RFI”) seeking comments and information from the public regarding the Bureau’s enforcement processes. The RFI seeks public input on “how best to achieve meaningful burden reduction or other improvement” to the Bureau’s enforcement processes “while continuing to meet the Bureau’s statutory objectives and ensuring a fair and transparent process for parties subject to enforcement authority.” The following is a brief summary of the RFI. For more in-depth analysis, please click here.

The RFI provides a non-exhaustive list of aspects of the enforcement process that commenters may wish to address:

1. The timing, frequency, and contents of communications between the CFPB and the subjects of its investigations;
2. The length of the Bureau’s investigations;
3. The Notice and Opportunity to Respond and Advise (“NORA”) process;
4. Whether the subject of a potential enforcement action should have the right to make an in-person presentation to the CFPB before the Bureau initiates legal proceedings;
5. The calculation of civil money penalties, including the possibility of adopting a civil money penalty matrix;
6. The standard provisions in the CFPB’s consent orders, including its conduct, compliance, monetary relief, and administrative provisions; and
7. The manner and extent to which the Bureau can and should coordinate its enforcement activities with other agencies.

The RFI closely follows on two prior RFIs: One on the CFPB’s civil investigative demand process, issued on January 24, 2018, and one on the CFPB’s use of administrative adjudications, issued on January 31, 2018.

Notably, the Bureau has also announced a fourth reexamination RFI – regarding the CFPB’s supervisory processes – to be issued very shortly.