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CFPB has issued numerous press releases in the past year explaining its consent orders addressing a wide range of consumer protection violations, but the bureau's own ombudsman office has questioned the transparency and consistency of those announcements.

The CFPB Ombudsman Office's annual report, released earlier this month concludes on p. 22 that while the bureau's press releases often do accurately reflect the language used in corresponding consent orders, they do not consistently provide the same kind of information, such as the fact a company may have corrected the practice in question long before the order was released to the public.

The report noted that when the bureau describes whether a company ended a certain practice, "in some instances consent order shared that a company practice ended, but the press release did not reflect that information." The report also mentioned that some of the bureau's press releases included specific information about company operations and others did not.

The ombudsman reviewed a number of issues and identified several for CFPB to consider when reporting on consent orders, including: if the CFPB shares the same type of information across companies, if press releases contain words with legal meaning that are not in consent orders in an effort to use plain language, and whether phrasing exists that may make certain topics seem more significant than they otherwise might.

Both the CFPB and NCUA are authorized to take enforcement actions addressing unfair, deceptive or abusive acts or practices, or UDAAP. NCUA has not taken UDAAP enforcement actions against a federal credit union to date, but some credit unions' third-party vendors may be within the scope of CFPB.