The Wall Street Journal reports on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's consideration of a rule requiring lenders to provide detailed data on loan applications, in an effort to prevent discrimination against small businesses and businesses owned by women and minorities. "To do that, the agency would require lenders to provide detailed data on loan applications, […]
Author Archives: Allison Zieve
Politico reports: The FCC has announced a series of eye-popping fines against companies over the past two years: Roughly $100 million against nearly a dozen firms for defrauding a phone subsidy program, $35 million against a Chinese company for selling illegal wireless jamming equipment, and $100 million against AT&T this June for throttling customers on […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau today posted its current rulemaking agenda. Its "current initiatives" address arbitration; payday, auto title, and similar lending products; pre-paid accounts; overdraft; debt collection; larger participants and non-depository lender registration; Women-owned, minority-owned, and small businesses data collection; mortgage servicing; and implementation of various mortgage rules. The CFPB announcement has a summary. […]
The Federal Trade Commission has approved final amendments to its Telemarketing Sales Rule, including a change that will help protect consumers from fraud by prohibiting four discrete types of payment methods favored by con artists and scammers. The rule changes will stop telemarketers from dipping directly into consumer bank accounts by using certain kinds of […]
A bill that would limit the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s 2013 auto lending guidance passed the House of Representatives late Wednesday. Automotive News explains that "H.R. 1737 — the Reforming CFPB Indirect Auto Financing Guidance Act — would revoke 2013 auto lending guidance from the CFPB. The guidance suggests lenders should either impose limits on […]
The Department of Justice has announced: As part of a nationwide sweep, the Department of Justice and its federal partners have pursued civil and criminal cases against more than 100 makers and marketers of dietary supplements. The actions discussed today resulted from a year-long effort, beginning in November 2014, to focus enforcement resources in an […]
Forbes reports: The Colorado Supreme Court has ruled that litigation-finance contracts — non-recourse loans to consumers that are repayable only if they win their case — are indeed loans under that state’s consumer finance laws, making it harder for high-interest lawsuit lenders to operate in the state. The decision [yesterday] by Colorado’s highest court upholds […]
The Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to further the agencies’ ongoing cooperation on consumer protection matters. The memorandum is designed to formalize the existing cooperation between the agencies, outlining how the FTC and FCC will coordinate consumer protection efforts.
The Washington Post's Wonkblog reports today on a new study. The study's authors found that a third of the clinical trial results that federal regulators reviewed to approve drugs made by large pharmaceutical companies in 2012 were never publicly reported. The full article is here.
The Wall Street Journal reports: Most Americans have probably never heard of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Many will learn about it on Tuesday night when millions tune in to watch the next Republican presidential debate. The American Action Network, a right-leaning advocacy group that has spent heavily to elect Republicans, plans to blanket the Fox […]