More American households are accessing the banking system. According to an FDIC survey released this month, 96 percent of all U.S. households had bank accounts in 2023. The survey, conducted biennially with the U.S. Census Bureau, found little difference between 2023 and the previous 2021 data, but showed a marked improvement from the 2011 survey […]
The Federal Trade Commission reported Friday that complaints about unwanted calls are dropping – and they have been doing so for three straight years. Complaints of unwanted calls reported in 2024 decreased more than 50% from the complaints recorded in 2021 (5 million+ complaints in 2021 to ~2 million in 2024), according to FTC’s Do […]
Here. The Consumer Finance Monitor podcast episode consists of an interview with Cornell’s Dan Awrey about his working paper “Money and Federalism,” “in which he advocates for the enactment of Federal legislation creating a federal charter for non-banks engaged in the payments business, like PayPal and Venmo.”
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has released a report examining federal and state-level privacy protections for consumers’ financial data. The report notes that protections under federal regulations for financial data have limits. Yet, many new state data privacy protections exempt financial institutions and consumer financial data covered by federal law, even though states generally have […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued results from its Student Loan Borrower Survey, providing insights into the effects of student loan debt relief programs and the challenges borrowers face in navigating repayment options. The survey, conducted between October 2023 and January 2024, gathered data from a representative sample of student loan borrowers as the federal […]
After Meta, parent company of Facebook, acquired Instagram and WhatsApp, the FTC brought Sherman Act antitrust claims against the company in 2020. The district court had previously denied a motion to dismiss, and, yesterday, denied both parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment–finding the case must go to trial. In so doing, though, the court commented that […]
Larry Kirsch has written Power-Balancing: State Attorneys General and Unfair Mortgage Lending forthcoming in 9 International Review of Financial Consumers. Here’s the abstract: This paper is a case study in the enforcement of state unfair trade practice laws targeted at predatory mortgage lending and securitization abuses during the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. It considers how […]
From the inside cover: Bankruptcy is the busiest federal court in America. In theory, bankruptcy in America exists to cancel or restructure debts for people and companies that have way too many—a safety valve designed to provide a mechanism for restarting lives and businesses when things go wrong financially. In this brilliant and paradigm-shifting book, […]
The FTC brought administrative proceedings against tax preparation company H&R Block, arguing that the company had made deceptive statements about its “free filing” products. H&R Block brought an action in federal district court seeking to enjoin the administrative proceedings, challenging the FTC’s structure. Yesterday, the FTC announced the parties had reached a settlement of the […]
We received the following call for writers and speakers: The Loyola Consumer Law Review Seeking Writers, Speakers for its 2025 Symposium on “Big Tech” and the Consumer. The Loyola Consumer Law Review is hosting its annual symposium on March 21, 2025 at the Loyola University Chicago School of Law located in downtown Chicago. We are […]