The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced today: [CFPB] is taking steps to improve checking account access amidst Bureau concerns that consumers are being sidelined by the lack of account options and by inaccurate information used to screen potential customers. Today the CFPB sent a letter to the 25 largest retail banks encouraging them to make […]
Author Archives: Allison Zieve
According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Morgan Stanley has agreed to pay $62.95 million to resolve claims over the sale of toxic mortgage-backed securities to three banks that later failed. The FDIC is acting as the receiver for the failed banks. The settlement brings the total amount of FDIC settlements with Morgan Stanley over […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has released its latest monthly consumer complaint snapshot, highlighting consumer complaints about financial services such as debt settlement, check cashing, money orders, and credit repair. The report shows that consumer complaints about these types of financial services generally revolve around issues of fraud or problems with reliable customer service. It […]
The Federal Trade Commission press release explains: For the first time, identity theft victims can now go online and get a free, personalized identity theft recovery plan as a result of significant enhancements to the Federal Trade Commission’s IdentityTheft.gov website. The new one-stop website is integrated with the FTC’s consumer complaint system, allowing consumers who […]
Consumer Reports released this week a survey of consumers understanding of "natural" on food labels. The report found that almost two-thirds of consumers are misled by foods labeled as “natural.” Of 1,005 adults polled in December, more than half incorrectly believed that natural claims on labels had been independently verified, and nearly two-thirds thought the […]
The Federal Trade Commission announced today: The [FTC] has filed suit against the operators of DeVry University, alleging that DeVry’s advertisements deceived consumers about the likelihood that students would find jobs in their fields of study, and would earn more than those graduating with bachelor's degrees from other colleges or universities. In its complaint against […]
Over the past day, we have seen lots of articles on yesterday's decision in Campbell-Ewald v. Gomez. Our own coverage is here. Most simply describe the decision, but here are a few that add some commentary: A nice editorial in The New York Times. Coverage in The Wall Street Journal. Analysis from Howard Wasserman at […]
The Washington Post reports: Goldman Sachs said Thursday it will pay roughly $5 billion to settle federal and state probes of its role in the sale of shoddy mortgages in the years leading to the housing bubble and subsequent financial crisis. Coming nearly eight years after the crisis, the settlement is by far the largest […]
The Federal Trade Commission reports that pharmaceutical companies entered into substantially fewer potential pay-for-delay patent dispute settlements in fiscal year 2014. Under such settlements, brand-name drug companies pay generic companies to delay entry of less costly drugs onto the market. In FTC v. Actavis (2013), the U.S. Supreme Court held that a brand-name drug manufacturer’s payment […]
Vox has this article by writer Harold Pollack on the CARD Act, the credit-card industry, and the value of paying off credit cards every month.