Standing Up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Working on setting up the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Elizabeth Warren is in the Silicon Valley meeting with technology industry leaders to solicit advice about building a state-of-the-art, 21st century agency that harnesses some new tools that exist in our hyper-connected and digital world.

She believes the tools that can be at the new agency's disposal will have at least three kinds of implications.

First, information technology can help ensure that the new agency remains a steady and reliable voice for American families. The kinds of monitoring and transparency that technology make possible can help this agency ward off industry capture.

Second, technology can be used to make help the agency become an effective, high-performance institution that is able to update information, spot trends, and deliver government services twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. If we set it up right from the beginning, the agency can collect and analyze data faster and get on top of problems as they occur, not years later. Think about how much sooner attention could have turned to foreclosure documentation (robo-signers and fake notaries) if, back in 2007 and 2008, the consumer agency had been in place to gather information and to act before the problem became a national scandal.

And third, technology can be used to expand publicly available data so that more people can analyze information, spot problems, and craft solutions. When these data are made available - while also, of course, protecting consumer privacy, shielding personal information and protecting proprietary business information - a shared opportunity arises between the agency and people outside government to have a hand in shaping the consumer credit world.