The ‘Humility Pledge’ That Shows How a Financial Watchdog Lost Its Bite
The Trump administration wants to shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Here’s what it’s doing in the meantime.
Photo illustration: 731; Source: CFPB
In November, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced its staffers would read a “Humility Pledge” to companies before an examination. The CFPB, established by the 2010 Dodd-Frank law in response to the financial crisis, was designed to protect everyday customers of banks, mortgage and auto lenders, credit card companies and other financial products. Russell Vought, the CFPB’s current acting head and President Donald Trump’s budget director, has said he wants to shut the agency down.
We’ve annotated the pledge document to explain what’s happening at the agency—and what’s at stake.