CFPB Ombudsman’s Office Report Announces Post-Examination Surveys
On December 2, 2021, the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) Ombudsman’s Office published its annual report outlining its response efforts since the last report and its strategic plan goals for the next two years, including the Ombudsman’s determination that it would conduct post-examination surveys of supervised entities. This decision was made in response to a beta test-run[1] conducted in 2020 initiated by a request from the CFPB.
According to the report, the post-examination survey will be “implementing a conversational, dialogue approach[2].” This includes asking the following questions—which were also utilized in the beta test:
1. What worked well?
2. What did not work well, if anything?
3. What would you change moving forward?
4. Any specific follow-up questions to the information provided by the entity.
The CFPB anticipates that the entities selected for a post-examination survey will “meet with at least two members of the Ombudsman’s Office for a scheduled one-hour session” at which these questions will be posed. All responses will remain confidential to members outside of the Ombudsman’s Office. However, the unattributed feedback and recommendations provided in the survey will be turned over to the CFPB for the agency’s consideration and will be summarized in the CFPB's following annual report.
The CFPB plans to host virtual outreach engagements with industry stakeholders in the first quarter of FY2022 regarding the survey's launch.
If you have any questions or concerns about how this report will impact your organization, please contact Kennedy Sutherland.