White House: faith and finances

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The Obama administration is turning to faith to figure out how to better protect consumers.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau hosted a roundtable on Tuesday with ministers, rabbis and other spiritual leaders to get their input on how the financial crisis has affected their congregations.

Elizabeth Warren, who last year was tapped by President Obama to oversee the creation of the bureau, said consumer protection is rooted in religious and moral traditions.

“The laws have changed, but the basic notion that lending should not be used as an instrument of advantage-taking is deeply embedded in our collective consciousness,” she wrote on the bureau’s blog prior to the meeting.

Warren said that many people who have fallen on hard times often turn to their church or synagogue for help. Tuesday's roundtable also looked at ways the CFPB can work with the faith community to assist those consumers who need help the most.

Obama's appointment of Warren, a former Methodist Sunday School teacher, was greeted with dismay by critics in the banking industry who worried she would target financial institutions unfairly.

In her post, Warren called the fight for the new bureau a David-versus-Goliath effort in which “in the end, American families triumphed.”