From Kenosha News (WI), "Group rallies against high-interest lending practices in Kenosha, state" (March 27), here. From Akron Beacon Journal / Ohio.com, "Editorial: Real regulation for payday lenders" (March 26), here. From Wall Street Journal, "Florida Gives Payday Lenders a Boost" (March 19), here. From Nonprofit Quarterly, "Florida Senate Backs Changes in Payday Loans that […]
Author Archives: Allison Zieve
In today's New York Times, two lawyers from the large corporate law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison argue for repeal of the law that immunizes gun manufacturers from liability and explain the importance of law allowing individuals to hold industry accountable for wrongdoing. A nice piece, available here.
Reuters reports: "The top cop for U.S. consumer finance has decided not to sue a payday loan collector and is weighing whether to drop cases against three payday lenders, said five people with direct knowledge of the matter." The full article is here.
Today, the Federal Trade Commission and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a joint report on their 2017 activities to combat illegal debt collection practices. The annual report to Congress on the administration of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act details the agencies’ efforts to stop unlawful debt collection practices, including vigorous law enforcement, education and […]
A bipartisan group of House members on Wednesday released a bill that would replace the director of the controversial Consumer Financial Protection Bureau with a five-person commission. The bill would also rename the CFPB the Financial Product Safety Commission. The Hill has the story.
"Buried within Senate legislation to roll back restraints on banks is a provision that would exempt an estimated 85 percent of US banks and credit unions from public reporting requirements, raising fears that discriminatory practices by lenders could go undetected. The data that would be exempt from reporting include the financial information of borrowers and loan […]
The ACLU recently released a report on the criminalization of private debt: An estimated 77 million Americans—one in three adults—have a debt that has been turned over to a private collection agency. Thousands of these debtors are arrested and jailed each year because they owe money. Millions more are threatened with jail. The debts owed […]
The Federal Trade Commission reports that the number of consumer complaints about fraud dropped in 2017, but consumers reported losing more money than they did in 2016. The data book includes national statistics, as well as a state-by-state listing of top report categories in each state, and a listing of metropolitan areas that generated the […]
Politico reports: The Trump administration is taking steps to shield student loan collection companies from state regulators, over the objections of consumer advocates and even some Republican attorneys general. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is preparing to issue a declaration that companies collecting federal student loans are off limits for state lawmakers and regulators. The “notice […]
I was curious to see what the Department of Justice's Consumer Protection Branch has been up to lately, so I checked its website. Here are its 2018 press releases: Tuesday, February 13, 2018 – Michaels Stores Agrees to Pay $1.5 Million to Settle CPSC Delayed Reporting Claim Friday, January 26, 2018 – Leader of Fraudulent Medical […]