President Barack Obama has selected Richard Cordray, former Ohio Attorney General, as Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the strongest consumer watchdog group of its kind. Cordray, most recently served as the bureau’s Chief Enforcement Officer, handing out penalties to financial institutions such as rating agencies and payday lenders, for poor conduct. The Financial Protection Bureau is responsible for many reformations in the consumer market to date and Cordray will no doubt assist the bureau greatly in the furtherance of its goals.

What exactly does the CFPB do?

The CFPB is a new consumer agency that works to rectify the broken consumer credit market and market crash of 2008, thereby protecting consumers in their future financial products purchases. The CFPB, part of the Obama administration’s Wall Street Reform Bill, protects consumers by ensuring they get straightforward information and accessible resources when applying for a mortgage, credit card, and other consumer financial products. Prior to CFPB, consumers were at risk of making poor financial decisions due to unintelligible financial documents, deceptive advertising schemes by financial product institutions, and an inability to hold any one government financial protection agency accountable for their losses.

What changes have been made since the start of the CFPB?

Today, the CFPB makes credit and financial products safer and easier to understand for consumers. Elizabeth Warren, Harvard professor, spearheaded the inception of the CFPB. Under Warren’s prior direction, the CFPB now oversees how financial products and resources are marketed to consumers, including:

• Credit card applications and language, as well as their terms and fees
• Mortgage disclosures and language, as well as their terms of risk
• Resources specific to the finances of military service members and their families Resources made more effective and accessible for consumers in need of financial help
• Consumer protection from payday lenders, debt collectors, and other non-banks’ abuse

How do the latest CFPB updates affect the call center industry?

The CFPB now oversees the debt collection and accounts receivable management industries, formerly managed by the Federal Trade Commission. The new consumer protection agency has jurisdiction to write rules and enforce debt collection laws for these industries.

What can managers of collections, banking, and financial telemarketing call centers expect from the new director, Richard Cordray?

Cordray is known as a heavy hitter, he took on AIG, sued a number of major rating agencies as well as GMAC Mortgage during his tenure as attorney general in Ohio. Cordray relies on research and data to identify financial institutions and agencies that exploit consumer interests.

What do the latest CFPB updates have to do with how call center managers run their centers?

Castel Detect provides cutting-edge voice analysis technology that measures and monitors voice properties including talkover and voice amplitude as well as several emotional characteristics in real time while the agent and customer are engaged in a phone call. Real time detection and analysis of voice properties and emotions may help telemarketing organizations, collection businesses, and financial institutions reduce their liability exposure to the Consumer Protection Bureau Agency and other litigation common in the industry.