Section 1031 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) and other provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act authorize the Bureau to take enforcement, supervision, and rulemaking actions concerning unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts and practices.  While statutory language, regulations, policy statements, and case law have provided important clarifications as to the meaning of unfairness and deception under federal consumer protection law over several decades, the Dodd-Frank Act was the first federal law to define and prohibit abusive acts and practices with respect to consumer financial products and services generally.  The Bureau held a symposium on this issue in June 2019, in which a panel of experts provided a variety of perspectives on the need and benefits in developing a clearer understanding of the abusiveness standard.  To convey and foster greater certainty about the meaning of abusiveness, in early 2020, the Bureau issued a general statement of policy, which provides a framework for the Bureau’s exercise of its supervisory and enforcement authority to address abusive acts or practices.  In issuing this Policy Statement, the Bureau did not foreclose the possibility of engaging in a future rulemaking to further define the abusiveness standard.