What is the primary purpose of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau?

The primary purpose of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is to enforce consumer laws regarding credit. This includes overseeing and ensuring compliance with a wide range of regulations that protect consumers in their financial transactions. The CFPB was created in response to the financial crisis, aiming to promote fairness and transparency for consumers in the financial system.

While the CFPB does engage in activities that relate to various aspects of financial institutions and may adopt specific rules regarding mortgages, its overarching mission is consumer protection through the enforcement of existing laws. This involves monitoring financial products and services to ensure they are fair, transparent, and accessible to consumers, thus preventing unfair practices that could harm individuals. The focus on enforcing consumer laws directly ties to the agency's role in safeguarding consumer interests in financial matters.

In contrast, the other options, such as managing real estate transactions or supervising all financial institutions, while related, do not encapsulate the broad mandate of the CFPB as effectively as the enforcement of consumer laws does. Therefore, the correct answer identifies the core responsibility of the CFPB in advocating for consumer rights and ensuring that financial institutions operate within the legal framework designed to protect consumers.