Obama signs Dodd-Frank, creating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

President Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act on July 21, 2010, establishing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) — the first federal agency with an explicit mandate to protect consumers from predatory financial practices. The CFPB consolidated consumer protection authority previously scattered across seven federal agencies, giving it supervisory power over banks, payday lenders, mortgage servicers, and debt collectors. For immigrant communities, including ITIN holders, the CFPB represented the first federal watchdog empowered to take action against discriminatory banking practices and predatory lending that disproportionately targeted the unbanked and underbanked.