Introducing Nonbank+
Building CFPB's Nonbank Registry
August 16, 2025
Introducing Nonbank+, a public, searchable database of enforcement actions against nonbank financial services companies. Search by company name, enforcement agency, violation type, or monetary penalty.
On December 19, 2024, the CFPB's nonbank supervision rule was officially revoked. The rule would have required the largest nonbank financial companies—payday lenders, debt collectors, money transmitters, and consumer reporting agencies—to register with the bureau and submit any final enforcement actions against them.
Only state and federal governments can compel nonbanks to register. However, enforcement actions against companies are public—so I built the database part of the nonbank registry rule, or an MVP of it anyway.
The Nonbank Boom That Regulators Wanted to Watch
The CFPB introduced the nonbank supervision rule in response to a shift in consumer financial services. Over the past decade, millions of Americans have moved their financial lives away from traditional banks and toward fintech companies, payday lenders, debt collectors, and other nonbank providers.
The numbers tell that story:
- $1.8 trillion in non-bank mortgage originations in 2023 (up from $800 billion in 2015) – reflecting the growing role of nonbanks in expanding mortgage access.
- 12 million Americans spend over $7 billion on payday loans annually, underscoring the importance of the CFPB’s oversight in curbing abusive lending practices and promoting fair, transparent credit markets.
- Major fintech companies like PayPal (432 million active users), Square/Block (4 million sellers), and Chime (8.6 million active members) serve more customers than many traditional banks – raising questions about the need for robust consumer protections across both traditional and emerging financial platforms.
- Crypto exchanges and digital wallets handle hundreds of billions in consumer funds – illustrating the scale of digital asset markets and the relevance of consumer safeguards in this evolving sector.
Yet these companies often lack the degree federal and state oversight of banks. Monitoring nonbanks presented a challenge and CFPB could only act after problems emerged—through complaints, investigations, or enforcement actions. The nonbank registry promised to improve proactive enforcement by requiring registration of nonbanks with the CFPB and submission of any enforcement orders against them to a database, streamlining compliance monitoring to protect consumers.
Why the Rule Was Rescinded
Industry opposition was swift and fierce. Nonbank companies argued the rule would:
- Increase compliance costs and reduce lending availability
- Duplicate existing state-level oversight
- Stifle innovation in financial technology
Legal challenges mounted immediately after the rule's passage. With changing political winds and intense lobbying pressure, the CFPB ultimately chose not to defend the regulation, formally rescinding it in December 2024.
The result? Enforcement remains reactive, and regulators continue to have limited market visibility to monitor nonbanks' compliance with enforcement orders—all despite a robust and growing nonbank ecosystem.
Building Transparency From the Bottom Up
If regulators won't provide systematic oversight, we can at least provide systematic transparency.
Nonbank+ takes on the enforcement action database part of the CFPB's nonbank registry rule. Nonbank+ aggregates enforcement actions from federal and state agencies into one searchable database. Search for your payday lender or debt collector. See what violations fintech companies have been cited for. Where possible, entries links back to the original enforcement document. The database currently covers:
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)
- Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
- Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
- Federal Reserve Bank (Fed)
- Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
- Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)
- California Department of Financial Protection & Innovation (DFPI)
- New York Department of Financial Services (DFS)
The database is still quite limited—I hope to grow it over time. You might also note that FDIC, the Fed, and other databases go beyond nonbanks. I left them in the database for better coverage, putting the "+" in Nonbank+.
The Road Ahead
Our roadmap includes:
- Adding additional state and federal regulatory data sources
- Enhancing search and filtering capabilities
- Open sourcing code on GitHub with full documentation
- Opening API access
- Assigning entity unique identifiers and fuzzy matching across databases
The Nonbank+ is an early-stage project built on a belief in consumer protection and the power of data transparency to support regulation, enforcement, and compliance. I welcome your feedback on what functionality, data sources, and analytics you'd find most valuable.
The financial industry serves tens of millions of Americans outside traditional banking oversight. If federal regulators won't enforce a registry, we can at least make sure enforcement actions aren't confined to bureaucratic silos.
Nonbank+ is a public benefit project. All data is sourced from public enforcement actions and made available under Creative Commons licensing. Code will be released under GPL v3.