What Is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)?

By Kristi Waterworth – Updated Nov 22, 2025 at 7:29 PM | Fact-checked by Frank Bass

Key Points

CFPB ensures financial markets fairness, focusing on rule enforcement and consumer education.
Established post-2008 crisis, CFPB centralizes oversight of banking/lending practices.
Investors benefit as CFPB regulates financial entities, ensuring ethical operations.

Although it's fun to think that under capitalism, the market is truly efficient, humans throw a kink into the works every time. This is why the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) exists. It's there to make sure that the people actually involved in the economy are treated fairly and have a way to push back against things like unfair financial practices.

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Metal cogs with regulation and compliance related words on them. — Image source: Getty Images.

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About the Author

Kristi Waterworth has been a contributing real estate and financial expert at The Motley Fool, covering real estate, investing, and personal finance topics, since 2020. Kristi has been interviewed by various TV media outlets and podcasts for her real estate investing expertise – from residential real estate to digital real estate and everything in between. Kristi’s journalist career spans over 25 years, and she has written about real estate investing, homeownership, and home construction specifically for the last decade. She was also previously a licensed Realtor and general building contractor before the Great Recession and housing market collapse. She holds a bachelor’s degree in American history from Columbia College in Missouri.

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