The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, and the Presidential Initiative Working Group of the National Association of Attorneys General announced agreement on a Joint Statement of Principles, the first step in forging a new partnership between federal and state officials to protect consumers of financial products and services. In the Joint Statement, the parties agree to:
- Develop joint training programs and share information about developments in federal consumer financial law and state consumer protection laws that apply to consumer financial products or services;
- Share information, data, and analysis about conduct and practices in the markets for consumer financial products or services to inform enforcement policies and priorities;
- Engage in regular consultation to identify mutual enforcement priorities that will ensure effective and consistent enforcement of the laws that protect consumers of financial products or services;
- Support each other, to the fullest extent permitted by law as warranted by the circumstances, in the enforcement of the laws that protect consumers of financial products or services, including by joint or coordinated investigations of wrongdoing and coordinated enforcement actions;
- Pursue legal remedies to foster transparency, competition, and fairness in the markets for consumer financial products or services across state lines and without regard to corporate forms or charter choice for those providers who compete directly with one another in the same markets;
- Develop a consistent and enduring framework to share investigatory information and to coordinate enforcement activities to the extent practicable and consistent with governing law;
- Share, refer, and route complaints and consumer complaint information between the CFPB and the state attorneys general;
- Analyze and leverage the input they receive from consumers and the public in order to advance their mutual goal of protecting consumers of financial products or services; and
- Create and support technologies to enable data sharing and procedures that will support complaint cooperation.
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