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8:56 p.m. Updated Debt collectors and credit reporting companies are bracing for intense scrutiny after the government's consumer finance watchdog unveiled a broad plan to regulate financial firms that have largely evaded federal oversight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WASHINGTON -- The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said on Thursday that it was seeking public comment on how much regulation to impose on consumer finance companies like debt collectors, check-cashing agencies and consumer credit companies. The Dodd-Frank financial regulation law, which became effective last July, specifically allows the new consumer bureau to regulate nonbank mortgage companies, private education lenders and payday lenders. But the law allows the bureau to regulate only ''larger participants'' in a host of other consumer finance markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]