Consumer Policy

The Office of Consumer Policy leads the Treasury Department’s work to empower more Americans to create financially secure futures for themselves and for their families, with access to safe and affordable financial products and services and the right information and knowledge for making sound financial choices. The office produces policy analysis on developments in financial services including emerging products and services provided by banks and non-bank institutions, payments, credit, financial technology, and related topics.

Financial Literacy and Education

The Office coordinates the Financial Literacy and Education Commission (FLEC) for the Secretary of the Treasury, who is the Chair of the FLEC.

Household and Community Climate Resilience

In October 2021, the FLEC launched an effort to study the impact of climate change on households and communities. This effort is part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s whole-of-government approach to tackling climate change and will bring together all FLEC agencies, and additional

agencies, to write a comprehensive report with the goal of identifying priority policy actions to increase household and community financial resiliency. The report will explore financial risks to households and communities, especially low-income and historically disadvantaged communities, of climate change and climate transition.

FLEC will work to develop an understanding of:

  • how households, communities, and the smallest businesses experience financial resilience in the face of climate change and climate transition, supported by resilience-supporting financial products and financial infrastructure supporting environments.
  • how to map climate-related financial risks, and identify which groups and regions will be most impacted; and
  • what tools and best practices could be effective at addressing risks and vulnerabilities and how to implement them equitably.

 

For more information on this effort, see the press release here and sign up for updates.

FINANCIAL LITERACY AND EDUCATION COMMISSION PUBLIC MEETING – April 25, 2023

The next public meeting of the Financial Literacy and Education Commission (FLEC) will be held on April 25, 2023, from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time.  The meeting will be webcast here: Treasury webcast.

Under Secretary of the Treasury for Domestic Finance Nellie Liang will chair the meeting on behalf of the Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen. The Vice Chair of the FLEC, Rohit Chopra, Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, will also participate.

This FLEC meeting will feature a panel focused on financial access for justice-involved individuals and highlight the interagency work on alternatives to incarceration and reentry led by the White House. The meeting will also include a panel highlighting the successful public-private-nonprofit collaboration during the COVID-19 pandemic to facilitate safe and timely receipt of economic impact payments via direct deposit to a bank account; panelists will discuss lessons learned and share implementation best practices.

You do not need to register to view the webcast. If you require a reasonable accommodation or communication access services such as Communication Access Real-Time Translation (CART) or sign language interpreters, please contact ReasonableAccommodationRequests@treasury.gov.

Please click here for the agenda.

FEDERAL FINANCIAL LITERACY REFORM

The office prepared the report Federal Financial Literacy Reform: Coordinating and Improving Financial Literacy Efforts. The report highlights the importance of financial literacy and education for all Americans and identifies ways to improve the delivery of financial education. The report recommends actions to enhance the federal government’s investments in financial education through better coordination, prioritization, and partnership with the private sector and state, tribal and local governments.

The Financial Literacy and Education Commission issued a new National Strategy for Financial Literacy 2020 .  The National Strategy details the federal government’s financial literacy priorities to empower consumers to make independent financial decisions and build financial resilience. The National Strategy lays the foundation         for coordination efforts between member agencies and between the public and private sector to meet these objectives.

Financial Security

This office provides leadership and policy development and analysis for empowering individual financial security and wealth building. Current topics include financial capability, saving and investing, access to consumer credit, innovation in financial services and student lending.  
 

  

 

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