Author Archives: Jeff Sovern

Nerd Wallet Publishes Important Collection of Stories About Rent-to-Own

by Jeff Sovern The landing page is here.  Here is an excerpt from one story, Kicking in Doors and Crushing Credit: How Rent-A-Center Torments Customers, though other stories on the web site merit attention, and there is more to this one than we can include here: Virginia real estate investor Olivia Quinn says she lost her […]

Updated Version of Why We Need to Save the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Here, in The Conversation. Excerpt: The House of Representatives has passed a bill that would cripple the CFPB by, for example, taking away the power it used to fine Wells Fargo for opening illegal accounts and concealing its complaint database from public view. In other words, it would force the bureau to sit idly by as financial institutions lie to […]

Senate Could Vote on CRA Resolution to Block Arbitration Rule Tonight . . .

by Jeff Sovern . . .  or  it could come later in the week. Or not. My speculation is that the Senate leadership will call the vote if they think they have the votes to pass the resolution but otherwise they will let it go until closer to the deadline. So the real question is […]

Am Banker Reports on Economists Who Are Critical of the OCC Claims in the CFPB-OCC Data Dispute

by Jeff Sovern The article, by Kate Berry and Ian McKendry, is headlined Fight to kill CFPB arbitration rule could rest on whose data is right. Here's some of what the article says about the OCC claims, though the article has more than I can insert here. "The uncertainty of the OCC's estimate is very large, […]

Politico Got Two Statisticians to Look at the CFPB-OCC Arbitration Statistical Dispute

by Jeff Sovern The story is headlined 'Plague on both your houses': Cordray, Noreika get scolding from statisticians. Excerpt: " * * * There isn’t strong evidence either way,” said Bruce Meyer, a professor at the University of Chicago. “There is weak evidence that says more than likely there is a positive effect on the cost […]

Times Op-Ed Shows How Markets Sometimes Fail to Curb Companies That Cheat Consumers

by Jeff Sovern The piece is by Richard Coniff and is titled Why We Don’t Vote With Our Wallets. Excerpt: [W]e get bored and look away from the dull crimes companies commit every day, like Wells Fargo foisting phony accounts and unwanted auto insurance on its customers. * * * Like Volkswagen selling “clean diesel” […]

Credit Bureau Industry Still Seeking Caps on Damages After Equifax Breach

by Jeff Sovern Much has been made of the fact that the day the Equifax breach became public, Congress held a hearing on bills that would have limited damages credit bureaus would have to pay for misconduct.  This past Tuesday, the Senate Banking Committee held a hearing titled Consumer Data Security and the Credit Bureaus […]

Law360 Reports Trump Nominates Joseph Simons to Chair FTC and Rohit Chopra to Serve as Commissioner

by Jeff Sovern Rohit Chopra, of the Consumer Federation of America, recently served at the CFPB and obviously has experience with consumer protection issues. Simons, who formerly served as director of the FTC's competition bureau, is currently at Paul Weiss. I don't know what experience, if any, he has on the types of consumer protection […]

More Tough Talk in the Senate About the Equifax Data Breach; Will It Lead to Changes in the Law?

by Jeff Sovern Yesterday the Senate Banking Committee held a hearing on consumer data security. The Hill covered it, in a report headlined Senators bear down on credit reporting industry over data security.  Here is an excerpt: “If they lose my data as Equifax did, or if someone submits to them data that is an error […]