The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau yesterday took action against the National Collegiate Student Loan Trusts and their debt collector, Transworld Systems, Inc., for illegal student loan debt collection lawsuits. Consumers were sued for private student loan debt that the companies couldn’t prove was owed or was too old to sue over. These lawsuits relied on […]
Author Archives: Allison Zieve
State and federal authorities are proposing tougher regulations against Equifax and the entire credit monitoring industry after the company announced that personal information like Social Security numbers of about 143 million Americans was exposed. The Washington Post has the story, here.
The New York Times reports that "[l]obbyists and Republican lawmakers are gearing up for battle over a new U.S. regulation that is likely to dent profits in the $6 billion short-term, high-interest "payday" loan industry. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is expected in coming days to release a long-anticipated rule curbing payday lending, now […]
The Washington Post reports: Tens of thousands of former students who say they were swindled by for-profit colleges are being left in limbo as the Trump administration delays action on requests for loan forgiveness, according to court documents obtained by The Associated Press. The Education Department is sitting on more than 65,000 unapproved claims as […]
Politico reports that, one after "regulators fined Wells Fargo $185 million for opening potentially millions of fake accounts, the bank is nowhere close to putting the scandal behind it. Congress is threatening new hearings, and some Democrats have called on regulators to remove the bank's board or for breaking up the lender entirely. In fact, […]
The New York Times reports: Equifax warehouses the most intimate details of Americans’ financial lives, from the credit cards in their wallets to the size of their medical bills. But the company doesn’t face the constant monitoring and auditing that help strengthen banks’ systems and data protections. Despite the wealth of sensitive information in its […]
Center for Science in the Public Interest's longtime president, Mike Jacobson, is stepping down next week. NPR reports: "Michael Jacobson invented a new style of food activism. For four decades, he led the fight against 'junk food.'" Read NPR's full story, which includes some interesting history about CSPI, here.
The House yesterday passed a bipartisan bill, called the “Self Drive Act,” addressing driverless cars. Among other things, the bill would allow car companies to introduce as many as 100,000 such vehicles a year — exempted from safety standards while the technology is developing. At the same time, the bill would bar states from implementing […]
The House of Representatives Financial Services subcommittee is holding a hearing this morning on HR 2359, entitled the "FCRA Liability Harmonization Act," which would reduce consumer remedies for credit reporting abuses. It would impose a $500,000 cap on damages in class actions brought under the Fair Credit Reporting Act and eliminate punitive damages in individual […]
Politico reports that, seven months into the Trump administration, Department of Education Secretary DeVos has: — Moved to gut two major Obama-era regulations reviled by the industry that would have cut off funding to low-performing programs and made it easier for defrauded students to wipe out their loans; — Appointed a former for-profit college official, […]