Le Bureau de protection des consommateurs de produits financiers

The financial crisis that took hold in 2008 had many causes, but consumer financial products originated in the United States were at its heart. This article discusses the U.S. regulatory framework that existed before the crisis, with a particular emphasis on the decentralized approach to regulating consumer financial products and the attendant lack of supervisory attention to these products. We then discuss the products that emerged during this period of lax oversight, including the subprime mortgages that eventually threatened the global financial system. In the third section we discuss the broad legislative response to the crisis, a key component of which was a new federal agency: the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. We conclude with the agency?s near-term priorities, including better supervision of nonbank providers of consumer financial products, simpler financial disclosures, and stronger standards for originating and servicing mortgages ? and note that the agency?s success depends to some extent on managing the political controversy that surrounds its very creation and its new director. Classification JEL: G01, G21, G28.