The House Financial Services Committee today voted for a bill to create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) by a vote of 39 to 29. The proposed agency, which is part of a larger financial overhaul developed by the Obama Administration and Congress this year, will now move to the full House floor for a vote.

We have been fighting hard and asking active citizens to call on their Representatives for stronger regulatory oversight to protect consumers from unfair, deceptive, and abusive financial products and practices.

The CFPA would ensure that:

Credit, deposit, and payment products and services are offered in a fair, sustainable and transparent manner.

Would create baseline federal consumer protection standards that would apply whether the product is offered by a big bank, small bank, or non-bank lender or other financial company.

States would have some power to create and enforce new consumer protection standards.

As the bill moves to the House floor for a vote, we are reminding lawmakers to resist calls from financial industry lobbyists to water it down with more exemptions, weakened powers for examination and enforcement, and more restrictions on the role of states in consumer protection. On a final note we are working to include auto dealers as lenders that would be overseen by the CFPA.

Gail Hillebrand, head of the DefendYourDollars.org Team said it best in her quote

“For years, do-nothing federal bank regulators stood by while risky financial products that triggered the mortgage meltdown grew and flourished. This bill rejects business as usual and creates real oversight of banks and lenders to protect consumers and help all of us get a fair deal.”