Venable partner Jonathan Pompan was quoted in a July 15, 2013 CFPB Watch article on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) call for cooperation from banks. In its recently issued Bulletin, the Bureau said financial firms can affect the weight of enforcement penalties against them if they act responsibly. The Bulletin lists four categories of conduct firms can take – self-policing, self-reporting, remediation, and cooperation – that the CFPB would consider in deciding penalties.
Pompan said the Bulletin "got a lot of folks' attention, but when you scrape below the topic headings and really look at the substance, the factors that they outline are emblematic of requesting and seeking cooperation." He added "at the end of the day what they are essentially doing is drawing a line between what they view as cooperative behavior versus uncooperative behavior in the course of an investigation."
Some are skeptical that the Bureau will be lenient toward cooperative firms, in part, because of its hefty $210 million enforcement action against Capital One – a company that CFPB Director Richard Cordray admitted had responded "extremely responsibly" to the problem. Pompan concluded "it will be quite some time until there is enough data available to know whether or not the Bureau truly followed through."
Pompan said the Bulletin "got a lot of folks' attention, but when you scrape below the topic headings and really look at the substance, the factors that they outline are emblematic of requesting and seeking cooperation." He added "at the end of the day what they are essentially doing is drawing a line between what they view as cooperative behavior versus uncooperative behavior in the course of an investigation."
Some are skeptical that the Bureau will be lenient toward cooperative firms, in part, because of its hefty $210 million enforcement action against Capital One – a company that CFPB Director Richard Cordray admitted had responded "extremely responsibly" to the problem. Pompan concluded "it will be quite some time until there is enough data available to know whether or not the Bureau truly followed through."