Making Financial Markets Work For Consumers

Dear Director, Congratulations! You and your team have been entrusted with the task of shaping and enforcing regulations for the consumer finance sector. Your purview includes deposit and savings products, credit products, credit ratings, loans made by nonbank financial institutions, and financial education. The markets for these offerings represent nearly $20 trillion in household assets and liabilities. Consumers have benefited from these products, which help people save money and buy homes, but many have suffered greatly because of unfairness or unscrupulousness in the design and sale of some products and turmoil in financial markets. Building your new agency is a job that’s part start-up and part roll-up, as you will inherit jurisdiction and personnel from at least half a dozen existing agencies. It is an important, exciting, and daunting task. We respectfully offer a few pieces of advice, grounded in our work in economics, law, public policy, and business.