OMWI UPDATE
OFFICE OF MINORITY AND WOMEN INCLUSION (OMWI) UPDATE FROM CONGRESSWOMAN MAXINE WATERS
Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee
As part of NAWRB’s commitment to bring women’s di- The Dodd-Frank Act also established the Consumer Fiversity and inclusion to the forefront, Congresswoman nancial Protection Bureau – the first agency of its kind Maxine Waters provides an OMWI update: specifically designed to monitor and provide critical consumer protections that were absent in the run-up to NAWRB: Throughout your career protecting the con- the crisis. To date, the CFPB has delivered more than sumer has been a very important priority for you. Can you $11 billion in relief to 25 million American consumers, provide an update on the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform empowering consumers within our financial system like and Consumer Protection Act since our last conference never before. October 2014? What is the most important benefit this act is affording the typical American consumer? In spite of this progress, there has been a sustained effort to dismantle and delay key portions of the measure Congresswoman Waters: Consumer protection has by opponents of these reforms. And Democrats on the been, and continues to be, a top priority for me here in Financial Services Committee have come together to Congress. During my time as Member and now Rank- successfully defend against such changes, thus ensuring Member of the Committee on Financial Services, ing that critical protections included in the reform law I’ve come to understand how critical consumer issues are remain intact. for the average American. In the run-up to the 2008 financial crash, our financial system was riddled with NAWRB: Recently, federal agencies issued the final inloopholes and opaque shadow markets, which allowed teragency policy statement establishing OMWI standards the worst actors to reap financial gains on the backs of for the entities they govern. This is a great development America’s middle class. In the end, we saw the financial for minority and women inclusion. Now that the stancrisis decimate our economy, destroy nine million jobs, dards have been established, what would you like to see and displace 11 million American families. In response, happen next for the OMWIs? Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (The Dodd-Frank Act), Congresswoman Waters: Section 342 of the Doddto end this sort of behavior in the financial services sec- Frank Act directs the Agencies’ OMWIs to develop tor, and provide rules-of-the-road to prevent another standards for assessing the diversity policies and practiccrisis from happening again. es at regulated entities. Congress included Section 342 in The Dodd-Frank Act, in part, as a means of promoting This past July was the fifth anniversary of the passage of workforce and supplier diversity within the financial serthe Dodd-Frank Act. As one of the most comprehensive vices sector, and monitoring financial institutions’ efforts reform measures enacted in modern history, it has em- to achieving more equitable representation in the industry. powered Wall Street “cops-on-the-beat” by equipping them with critical enforcement tools, brought greater In order to ensure that Congressional intent on this transparency to the once-opaque banking activities that matter was clear, I, along with Congresswoman Beatty, a helped cause the crisis, and given regulators direct man- Member on the Financial Services Committee and leaddates to ensure the future stability of our financial system. er in the implementation of Section 342, and most of the
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