In recent years, banks, mortgage companies and lenders have served as targets for the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB). The bureau actively promulgated multiple rules, re-interpreted case law and revised regulations to force these institutions to change their behavior and structures. More recently, the CFPB also has targeted other segments of the financing world ranging from auto dealerships to student loans. The target list keeps growing.

On November 6, 2013, the CFPB began accepting complaints from borrowers encountering problems with payday loans, also known as cash advances or check loans. Now, consumers can submit payday loan complaints to the bureau about unexpected fees or interest, unauthorized or incorrect charges to their bank account, payments not being credited to their loan, problems contacting the lender, receiving a loan they did not apply for and not receiving money after they applied for a loan. Recently, the CFPB published an advanced notice of proposed rule-making for its proposed update to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The 90-day comment period began on November 6, 2013. While the bureau noted that it has not yet decided the precise scope and nature of rule-making it may conduct concerning debt collection, the full 114-page advanced notice goes into detail about what the bureau is looking for during the comment period. The CFPB also announced that it would be releasing some 5,000 debtcollection complaints it has been receiving since July 2013.