The CFPB published a fact sheet on the agencies nine priority goals, and its two-year plan to accomplish these.  They provide a little insight on what is coming up on the regulatory horizon.  Listed below are their focuses, and planned steps for the next two years to accomplish them.

ARBITRATION
The CFPB envisions a consumer financial marketplace where consumers have the ability to effectuate their rights and hold institutions accountable for unlawful conduct.

• The Bureau will continue the rulemaking process and propose a rule consistent with its study that will further enable consumers to effectuate their rights and hold institutions accountable for unlawful conduct.

CONSUMER REPORTING
The CFPB envisions a consumer reporting system where furnishers provide and consumer reporting companies maintain and distribute data that are accurate and inclusive of more consumers. This should be supplemented by effective and efficient dispute management and resolution processes for consumers.

• The Bureau will continue to examine and investigate consumer reporting companies and furnishers of consumer information, focusing on accuracy and dispute resolution processes, and we will hold those institutions accountable for remedying any deficiencies.
• The Bureau will use the information it gathers using outreach and various tools to assess options for cooperatively improving consumer reporting data.
• Based on this work, the Bureau may consider rulemaking around furnisher and consumer reporting accuracy, dispute resolution, and related issues.
• The Bureau will explore how alternative data is or can be used in the consumer reporting system to improve access to financial services.

DEBT COLLECTION
The CFPB envisions a debt collection market where everyone who collects debts substantiates the debts they are collecting, accurately identifies debtors, provides debtors with appropriate information, and communicates with debtors about their debts in a respectful, lawful, consumer-oriented way.

• The Bureau will initiate the rulemaking process with the goal of finalizing a rule that will establish clear rules of the road to ensure that debt collectors (both first-party and third-party) treat consumers with dignity and respect, obtain and retain the information necessary to substantiate the debts they collect on, and provide consumers with appropriate information about their rights and the debt collection process.
• The Bureau’s rulemaking activity will be complemented by rigorous supervision and enforcement to ensure that institutions are held accountable for fulfilling their current obligations and, eventually, by ensuring that institutions comply with any rules promulgated in the rulemaking process.

DEMAND-SIDE CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
The CFPB envisions a marketplace where community and public service providers integrate financial capability skill-building into their educational and service programs, and consumers are aware of and have access to trusted tools and resources to make and act on critical financial decisions.

• The Bureau will create consumer financial decision-making tools and build awareness of the Bureau’s tools to provide consumers with the resources they need to make important financial decisions.
• The Bureau will enable existing social service providers, youth services, and K-12 organizations to help more young consumers build financial skills.
• The Bureau will conduct foundational research that financial educators can use to raise the effectiveness of educational and service programs and tools in improving consumer financial decision-making and financial well-being.

HOUSEHOLD BALANCE SHEETS
The CFPB envisions policymaking and consumer education based on a deep understanding of the evolution of households’ balance sheets and how households’ use of financial products changes over time.

• The Bureau will initiate a research program aimed at better understanding the factors that promote or inhibit the financial health of households by researching the dynamics of household balance sheets.
• As part of this effort, we will continue to develop data resources that provide valuable insight about financial decision-making and the financial health of households while maintaining consumer privacy.
• Relying on the Bureau’s own expertise and engaging with the broader research community, we will conduct several studies that use rigorous analysis to better understand the dynamics of household balance sheets.

MORTGAGES
The CFPB envisions a mortgage market where lenders serve the entire array of credit-worthy borrowers fairly and in a non-discriminatory manner, servicers’ processes result in fair and efficient outcomes for consumers, and new mortgage rules are implemented in a manner that supports a sustainable mortgage market.

• The Bureau will work to ensure that the new Home Mortgage Disclosure Act rule is successfully implemented.
• The Bureau’s supervisory and enforcement programs will work to ensure equal and fair (non-discriminatory) access to mortgage credit.
• We will also place particular focus on implementation of our servicing rules, protecting delinquent borrowers still suffering from the aftermath of the crisis or other economic setbacks, and ensuring that servicers are equipped to handle any future delinquencies fairly.
• The Bureau will continue to work with institutions to support implementation of the mortgage rules and will begin to assess the effectiveness of significant rules.

OPEN-USE CREDIT
The CFPB envisions an open-use credit market where lenders rely on business models that succeed when consumers use credit when needed and are able to repay their debts when due.

• The Bureau will continue the small-dollar rulemaking process with the goal of finalizing a rule that will protect consumers from debt traps associated with unaffordable loans.
• A proposal to define the larger participants in the installment lending market will allow the Bureau to supervise a more comprehensive range of lending markets.
• The Bureau will initiate a rulemaking process with the goal of developing rules to make the overdraft market fairer and more transparent.
• The Bureau’s supervisory and enforcement work will complement this rulemaking activity, in part by holding institutions accountable for deceptive marketing and illegal debt collection practices related to open-use credit products, and by ensuring compliance with any future rules.

SMALL BUSINESS LENDING
The CFPB envisions a small business lending market where fair lending laws are enforced and where communities, governmental entities, and creditors have access to the data needed to identify the business and community development needs and opportunities of women-owned, minority-owned, and small businesses.

• The Bureau will build a small business lending team and begin market research and outreach for a rulemaking on business lending data collection.
• Subject to an assessment of feasibility, the Bureau’s consumer response team will build the infrastructure to intake and analyze small business lending complaints.
• As part of its supervisory work, the Bureau will continue to examine small business lenders for compliance with fair lending laws.

STUDENT LENDING
The CFPB envisions a student lending market where servicers facilitate repayment of student debt in a manner that is consistent with consumer interests, transparent, and fair, and incentives encourage these outcomes.

• The Bureau will continue its work with the Department of Education and other agencies to develop and implement recommendations that align servicer incentives with appropriate consumer outcomes, including improvements that ensure consumers obtain the full benefit of available payment options.
• Through its supervisory and enforcement activity, the Bureau—in coordination with its law enforcement partners—will hold servicers accountable for their legal obligations to consumers.
• Based on this work, the Bureau will evaluate possible additional policy responses, including potential rulemaking.