The American Prospect: The Student Loan Report the Trump Administration Didn’t Want Published

Here. Here’s an excerpt from the story (not the report itself) about an omitted section: The college pricing section focuses on the role universities themselves play in the student loan crisis. The sticker price for college tuition has risen at more than double the rate of inflation since the year 2000. Most students don’t pay […]

ED delaying involuntary collections on student loans….blaming Biden

A few weeks ago, I shared that the Department of Education had planned to, for the first time since 2020, resume wage garnishments and other involuntary collections on federal student loans. Today, though, the Department announced a reversal of course, stating it would delay collections efforts while it “implement[s] major student loan repayment reforms under […]

FTC sues online question-and-answer service over deceptive subscription practices

The Federal Trade Commission this week sued an “online question-and-answer service” and its CEO in a California federal court alleging that they deceived people into a monthly subscription service. According to the FTC, people would come across the service, Just Answer LLC, in an online search, and then the company would lead them to believe […]

Politico reports that CFPB sharply cut student loan report; Bureau personally attacks author of original draft

Here. Excerpt: The level of changes to this year’s report seem to go far beyond the agency’s standard editing process, said Mike Pierce, who served as the senior adviser to the student loan ombudsman at CFPB from 2011-2018. “I can’t ever think of a set of circumstances or something quite like this [that] happened in […]

Krugman: Democrats should not cooperate with Trump on a 10% interest rate credit card cap unless Trump restores the CFPB

Here. Meanwhile, WaPo’s Michelle Singletary calls Trump’s proposal ridiculous and says it’s dead on arrival, saying “If the administration were truly interested in affordability, it would have strengthened the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rather than kneecapping it.” Not surprisingly, the bank trade organizations say the 10% cap would “reduce credit availability and be devastating for millions of […]

Divided 9th Circuit holds TCPA doesn’t apply to video texts

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act prohibits “mak[ing] any call . . . using . . . an artificial or prerecorded voice . . . to any telephone number assigned to a . . . cellular telephone service,” or  “initiat[ing] any telephone call to any residential telephone line using an artificial or prerecorded voice to deliver […]

Trump renews his call for a 10% interest rate cap on credit cards, drawing industry opposition

KEN SWEET and SEUNG MIN KIM have the story for the Associated Press here. The industry argument is that issuers would lose money on higher-risk borrowers at that rate and so would be unwilling to provide credit cards to them. Here’s an excerpt from the article: “A 10% credit card interest cap would save Americans $100 billion […]

American Banker: Vought capitulates to court order, asks for CFPB funding

Here, by Kate Berry (behind paywall but available on Lexis). Excerpt: Last month, District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled that Vought‘s refusal to request funding for the CFPB violates an existing injunction. She found that the combined earnings of the Fed means “everything the Federal Reserve earns.” Her order made it clear that a failure to seek […]

Ninth Circuit Requires Proof of Standing for FCRA Unnamed Class Members at Summary Judgment

After James Healy sued Milliman, a company that sells reports containing consumer’s medical histories to third-party insurers, alleging that the reports were inaccurate and violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the district court certified a class of consumers who were the subjects of inaccurate reports.  Milliman moved for partial summary judgment on the grounds that […]

Does ECOA bar discrimination because of sexual orientation and gender identity?

The Equal Credit Opportunity Act bars discrimination in consumer lending on the basis of sex but does not explicitly apply to sexual orientation or gender identity, as some state laws do. Back in 2021, after the Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County interpreting Title VII, the employment discrimination statute, to forbid such discrimination, […]