Today the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has established its Office of Minority and Women Inclusion (OMWI), under the guidance of the CFPB’s OMWI working group. An overarching goal for this working group is to ensure the integration of the OMWI mission throughout the Bureau.
Among other requirements, OMWI is charged, by statute, with developing standards for:
- Equal employment opportunity, workforce diversity, and inclusion at all levels of the agency;
- Increased participation of minority-owned and women-owned businesses in the CFPB’s programs and contracts; and
- Assessing the diversity policies and practices of the CFPB’s regulated entities.
The last part of the mission statement should get the attention of my readers. Fair lending is a very hot topic with the other federal regulators and with the Department of Justice. It appears that the CFPB is marching in step with the rest of Washington on this issue.