Compliance Week quoted Venable of counsel Jonathan Pompan in an August 14, 2012 article on the future of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) regulatory activity. The CFPB has pursued cases against not only banking entities, but also against non-bank financial companies including a California law firm over accusations of false advertising. The article highlighted the CFPB’s recent actions and addressed how the bureau will carry out its investigations and punitive pursuits in the future.
Pompan commented on the range of the CFPB’s oversight, saying “Any of the non-bank markets that are focused on providing services to consumers that are experiencing financial distress are under a lot of scrutiny.” Pompan also suggested that the CFPB’s actions against the California law firm were unreflective of how it will conduct itself in the future, adding, “That type of an approach would presumably only occur in the most extreme circumstances as viewed by the CFPB. This is not necessarily the approach they will always take. Typically, the CFPB will launch an investigation that precedes the initiation of a lawsuit.”