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March 5, 2013 – The CFPB's Project Catalyst, established to support the creation and growth of innovative consumer financial products and services, is seeing early traction for the three initiatives launched last November, bureau staff said in a recent blog post.

The three initiatives involved three companies, one of them designed to inform consumers about questionable charges on their debit and credit cards and the other two aimed at providing an alternative to traditional banking. (See the launch notice.)

The March 1 blog post notes the bureau's latest Project Catalyst initiative, a proposed policy aimed at encouraging trial disclosure programs. The CFPB is still working to finalize this policy and says it will hold a call with the "innovator community" to answer questions about how to request to participate once that happens.

It also points to ongoing outreach, most recently in a meeting with large financial institutions in New York "that share our interest in consumer-friendly products and services."

As for the proposed trial disclosure policy, NAFCU commented in February, suggesting that the CFPB also look to less costly methods of identifying ways to improve disclosures.

"In order to combat the prohibitive costs associated with participating in this program, the CFPB could offer grants to participating credit unions or allow a group of credit unions to work and participate together in the program," wrote NAFCU President and CEO Fred Becker. "The CFPB should also consider other methods of gathering consumer understanding of disclosures such as small focus groups."

NAFCU General Counsel and Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Carrie Hunt and Senior Regulatory Affairs Counsel Tessema Tefferi participated in a CFPB roundtable last December on Project Catalyst.

• CFPB blog post, 3/1
• NAFCU comment letter, 2/14
• "NAFCU at CFPB on ‘Catalyst,'" 12/17/12