by Jeff Sovern According to Evan Weinberger, writing in Law360: Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, who is leading the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on a temporary basis despite a court challenge from the bureau's deputy director, insisted Friday that he is not trying to destroy the federal watchdog from within. Mulvaney, who has been […]
Author Archives: Jeff Sovern
Deanne Loonin of Harvard University – Hale and Dorr Legal Services Center and Julie Margetta Morgan of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have written Federal Student Aid: Can We Solve a Problem We Do Not Understand?, forthcoming in the Utah Law Review. Here is the abstract: Americans currently owe over $1.3 trillion in student loans, […]
by Jeff Sovern Earlier this week we linked to an op-ed by Mary Spector (SMU), Genevieve Hebert Fajardo (St. Mary’s) and Neil L. Sobol (Texas A&M) criticizing a debt collection bill pending in the House, HR 4550, which would exclude from the FDCPA's coverage attorneys to the extent they are engaging in litigation. Though the bill […]
by Jeff Sovern So reports Ian MacKendry in the American Banker. The article says that Dever's candidacy is being pushed by Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, a member of the House Financial Services Committee and the National Republican Campaign Committee. As is usual in such matters, no sources are identified, though a couple of administration insiders […]
by Jeff Sovern The drip of bad news for consumer protection continues. Yesterday, the CFPB announced a "Call for Evidence Regarding Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Functions;" Evan Weinberger has more at Law360. Today we learned, as Allison posted, that the Bureau's budgetary request for this quarter is nothing–it will spend down its reserves instead. Allison […]
by Jeff Sovern Last week, the House Financial Services Committee's Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit held a hearing titled Legislative Proposals for a More Efficient Federal Financial Regulatory Regime: Part III on a variety of bills. One of the bills, H.R. 1264, provides that "Community financial institutions shall be exempt from all rules and regulations issued by the Bureau." […]
Writing in the Brownsville Herald, consumer law professors Mary Spector (SMU), Genevieve Hebert Fajardo (St. Mary’s) and Neil L. Sobol (Texas A& M) critique the debt collection bill pending in the House, HR 4550, which would exclude from the FDCPA's coverage attorneys to the extent they are engaging in litigation. Excerpt: House Resolution 4550, would […]
by Jeff Sovern Here. It seems unlikely that the Bureau would go to the trouble of a rulemaking only to ratify the rule. The Bureau had previously stated that it intended to amend the prepay card rule.
WaPo has a report, headlined How robo-callers outwitted the government and completely wrecked the Do Not Call list, reporting that the FTC receives 19,000 complaints per day from people on the Do-Not-Call list about robocallers. The FTC not only does not have the resources to do much about it, but when it tries, its efforts are […]
by Jeff Sovern A friend forwarded me the two images below. My friend, a prior H&R Block customer, received the 2017 software update for $24.95 while his son, who has not used the software in the past, was offered the identical software for $9.95. This type of price discrimination always makes me wonder about whether […]