By Richard Fischer and Eric Rodriguez, September 2013: “This paper reviews the key actions and decisions that the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has undertaken since it was first created by law three years ago. The mandate of this new agency is to ensure consumer financial products and services and the markets for those products and services are fair, transparent, and competitive. This paper measures the agency’s actions against its mandate. It analyzes the start-up and operational challenges the Bureau has faced and the critical choices that the Bureau has made.”