Consumer defense

The financial industry, even after witnessing the devastation to families brought on by the Great Recession, initially resisted the idea of a federal agency to regulate portions of that industry on behalf of consumers. But the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau went through as part of the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010.

Now the agency, headed by Richard Cordray, wants to expand its authority in an entirely appropriate way. It wants the largest debt collection agencies and credit reporting agencies brought under its control, regulated in much the same way that banks are.

These include companies many Americans who have been pursued by creditors are familiar with, including Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. Cordray cites a valid reason to do this: increased consumer confidence even as financial products and services grow more complex.

In the recession's wake, many consumers found out that few if any parts of the federal government were designated to stand up for their interests. Regulatory control was utterly confused. In fact, that confusion helped in some ways to bring on the recession because oversight just fell through the cracks.

This bureau is one of the Obama administration's signal accomplishments, and since the outset, it's been no threat, despite what critics have said, to honest banks and lenders and for that matter, the credit industry. The addition of this authority would be no threat to the credible part of the financial world, either. But it would be a safeguard against collection agencies and ratings agencies that abuse the information they have on consumers and thus consumers themselves.