The fledgling Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will partner with state attorneys general to bolster its enforcement capabilities, White House Adviser Elizabeth Warren announced during a speech yesterday.
Warren, who is currently heading up the new bureau in preparation of its July 21 launch, spoke of a new “joint statement of principles” on Monday, outlining the cooperation between the CFPB and state officials. She spoke before the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) at a Presidential Initiative Summit in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“Attorneys general are natural partners for the CFPB in our enforcement work, just as state banking supervisors are natural partners in our supervision work,” Warren said. “Indeed, you are indispensible partners. You are the states’ chief law enforcement officers. You are also on the front lines of consumer protection, and you are intimately familiar with the range of problems that hit American families the hardest.”
Warren recently hired former Ohio attorney general Richard Cordray as enforcement chief of the CFPB and has stressed the importance of partnering with state officials to improve the bureau’s mission.
“The new consumer agency is not yet fully operational, but we already have taken steps to turn our partnership into a reality,” she said. “The CFPB and the NAAG Presidential Initiative Working Group have prepared a Joint Statement of Principles, and I am pleased to report that this joint statement has been adopted. Our hard work is already taking tangible form.”
The CFPB has begun to make hires for its leadership team, and has come under scrutiny of House Republicans who proposed bills that would inhibit the CFPB’s capabilities. The bureau is on schedule for its July 21 launch.
See Warren’s prepared remarks for NAAG.
Written by Elizabeth Ecker
