The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) recently updates its strategic plan for promoting diversity and inclusion in its own workforce, its third-party suppliers and the entities it regulates, the agency announced updates to its strategic plan on that front.
The updated plan identifies impact areas and actions intended to drive continued innovation to advance diversity and inclusion. It calls for the bureau to engage with its regulated entities to support their diversity and inclusion efforts, consistent with the joint standards developed with the other federal regulatory agencies.
The updated plan covers the period of FY 2019-2022 and includes a strategy to “… maintain a comprehensive equal employment opportunity (EEO) compliance and diversity and inclusion programs, including those focused on minority and women inclusion.”
The Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan Update is built on five key impact areas based on Executive Order 13583, issued in 2011 by President Barack Obama, the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) government-wide diversity and inclusion plan, existing regulations and guidance from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and Section 342 of the Dodd-Frank Act. Those impact areas are:
- “Workforce diversity: To develop and maintain relationships with diverse colleges and professional organizations in order to improve the bureau’s talent pool and pipeline and develop a high-performing workforce from all segments of society.
- Workforce inclusion: To cultivate a culture that encourages collaboration, flexibility and fairness to enable individuals to contribute their full potential.
- Supplier diversity: To increase business opportunities for minority-and women-owned businesses (MWOBs); use the Dodd-Frank good faith effort (GFE) standards to determine bureau contractors’ efforts to utilize minorities and women in their workforces and provide advice to the bureau director on the impact of bureau policies on minority- and womenowned businesses.
- Sustainability: To develop strategies and processes to promote an inclusive culture and equip Bureau leaders with the ability to manage diversity, articulate expectations and accountability, measure results, and adjust and refine approaches based on collected data.
- Regulated entities: To provide a framework for regulated entities to build and strengthen their diversity policies and programs.”
The bureau utilized voluntarily collected data and self-assessment data submissions to develop best practices for enhancing diversity and inclusion so they are able to be replicated by other entities.
The CFPB’s efforts to promote diversity and inclusion have come under scrutiny in the past, including in 2016, when the Government Accountability Office issued an order directing the bureau to do more on that front.
Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.) brought up allegations of the bureau’s alleged marginalizing of minorities and women within its workforce when former Director Richard Cordray testified before the House Financial Services Committee in April 2017.