On April 25, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced that it will begin examining nonbank “covered persons” that it has determined pose risks to consumers. What is most striking about the announcement is not that the CFPB will start examining this category of nonbanks — it’s had that authority since its inception — but that the CFPB will publicly identify a nonbank as posing risk to consumers before the agency has even conducted its examination.
Read on for details and analysis of this development and implications for the fintech industry.