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Consumer Financial Protection Bureau seal

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Abbreviation: CFPB

Director (as of 2026): Jonathan McKernan

2026 Budget: $800M

SAM.govCGAC Code: N/A

Website: consumerfinance.gov

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is an independent agency responsible for consumer protection in the financial sector. Created by the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010, CFPB writes and enforces rules for consumer financial products and services including mortgages, credit cards, and payday loans.

CFPB is funded through transfers from the Federal Reserve rather than annual appropriations.

How to Win CFPB Contracts

Winning work at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureaumeans understanding a procurement culture that blends rigorous compliance, deep mission focus, and a preference for vendors who can speak the agency's language from day one. This guide walks through how CFPB buys, the vehicles it uses, and the steps your company should take to go from registered vendor to awarded contractor.

Understanding CFPB Procurement

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau obligates roughly $200-300M annually in contracts, funded by Federal Reserve transfers rather than congressional appropriations. CFPB buys heavily in research, economic analysis, consumer-complaint systems, supervision and examination technology, and enforcement litigation support.

The agency’s procurement profile mirrors a medium-size regulator: data-heavy, legally complex, and sensitive to political shifts. Vendors who understand consumer-finance regulation (RESPA, TILA, Dodd-Frank, Reg Z/E/X) have a durable advantage.

How CFPB Buys

CFPB primarily uses GSA MAS, OASIS+, and NITAAC CIO-SP4 plus agency-specific BPAs. The Office of Procurement runs both IT and professional services contracts with cross-cutting legal and data priorities.

Litigation support, expert witnesses, and specialized data contracts often issue as single-award task orders. Larger research and supervision contracts are multi-year IDIQs.

Major Contract Vehicles

  • CFPB Enterprise IT BPAs— Internal BPAs for IT operations, applications, cybersecurity, and analytics.
  • OASIS+ Task Orders— Primary professional services vehicle for research, consumer analytics, and policy analysis.
  • NITAAC CIO-SP4— Used for larger IT modernization programs.
  • Litigation Support IDIQs— E-discovery, expert witness, economic analysis for enforcement cases.
  • GSA MAS— Broadly used across service categories.

Step 1: Get Registered and Compliant

Required Registrations

SAM.gov registration with UEI and CAGE code, full FAR representations and certifications.

CFPB-Specific Requirements

FedRAMP Moderate for cloud services. Strong data-privacy and consumer-finance regulatory domain knowledge. For economic analysis, PhD-level econometricians are typically required.

Certification Programs

8(a), HUBZone, WOSB, SDVOSB. SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 are expected for data-handling work.

Step 2: Identify Opportunities

Primary Sources

SAM.gov filtered by CFPB. The agency publishes an annual forecast through the Office of Procurement.

Key Offices

CFPB Office of Procurement — Washington, DC.

Top Contract Types

FFP for commodity services. T&M/LH for research and litigation support. IDIQs for multi-year programs.

Step 3: Position Your Company

Build Relationships

Attend CFPB industry days, Consumer Law Center conferences, and ABA Consumer Financial Services Committee events. CFPB is a small community, and relationships with procurement staff are high-signal.

Relevant NAICS Codes

  • 541512–Computer Systems Design
  • 541611–Management Consulting
  • 541720–Research in Social Sciences
  • 541990–Professional/Scientific Services NEC
  • 541110–Offices of Lawyers
  • 541910–Marketing Research

Step 4: Develop Winning Proposals

Technical Approach

Demonstrate fluency in consumer-finance regulation. Generic federal research or IT narratives lose to domain-focused approaches.

Past Performance

Past performance at CFPB, federal banking regulators (OCC, FDIC, Fed), or state attorneys general consumer protection divisions is strongest.

Pricing Strategy

CFPB balances price and technical; litigation-support costs are scrutinized but rarely decisive if technical is strong.

Winning Strategies

  1. Invest in consumer-finance regulatory domain experts; CFPB evaluators read for substance.
  2. Build litigation-support and e-discovery credentials; enforcement-adjacent work is steady flow.
  3. Track CFPB rulemaking agendas, since new rules typically generate downstream research and compliance-assessment contracts.
  4. Use OASIS+ and CIO-SP4 as primary vehicle strategies.
  5. Partner with academic economists on research task orders.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

  1. Treating CFPB like a generic federal research buyer. Domain expertise is scrutinized closely.
  2. Pricing low on litigation support without defensible key-personnel plans.
  3. Ignoring CFPB’s political volatility, since contracts and priorities shift across administrations.

Small Business Programs

CFPB consistently exceeds small-business goals, with strong 8(a) and WOSB utilization on research, analytics, and administrative support.

Key Contracting Offices

  • CFPB Office of Procurement — Washington, DC

CFPB by the Numbers

Annual Contract Spend
~$250M contract obligations (FY2025)
Contract Actions / Year
~1,200 prime awards/year
Top NAICS
541512
Computer Systems Design

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