by Jeff Sovern Last month, Jeffrey Joseph posted Tyrannical CFPB tarnishes July 4th holiday in The Hill. Well, ok; others have so claimed, including House Financial Services Chair Jeb Hensarling. Joseph is described at the end of the op-ed only as "a business professor at the George Washington University School of Business." I was curious to see what […]
Author Archives: Jeff Sovern
Here. Excerpt: Some changes by the Trump administration are already unfolding. The Education Department plans to consolidate the number of federal loan servicing companies from nine to one. Administration officials also have discussed moving the federal loan program from the Education Department to the Treasury Department. Meanwhile, the Trump administration announced plans to roll back […]
by Jeff Sovern Here. Excerpt: Faced with a choice between helping their constituents or helping themselves to a campaign donation haul, House Republicans are siding with deep pockets. All but one of the House’s 234 Republicans voted last month to gut a powerful agency — the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — that banks, credit card issuers, debt collectors […]
Part 1 is here and part 2 is here. Excerpt: In my years of experience representing student loan borrowers, I have consistently seen servicers putting their own interests, or what they perceive to be the government’s interests, first. They rarely counsel student borrowers about the range of student loan relief programs, too often ignoring the fact […]
by Jeff Sovern Next stop should be the full committee, then the House floor.
by Jeff Sovern We posted yesterday about the House Appropriations Bill. I haven't studied the bill, but on a quick look, it contains a number of objectionable provisions from the Financial Choice Act (already passed by the House), including repeal of the CFPB's power to regulate arbitration and payday lenders and to block conduct on […]
by Jeff Sovern From The Hill. Excerpt: A spending bill released Wednesday by the House Appropriations Committee includes major restraints for financial regulatory agencies. * * * Including the provisions in the spending bill, which is must-pass legislation, increases the odds they could become law. The measure places the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Consumer Financial […]
Here. From the Executive Summary: 32 firms appear to be offering consumer arbitration services in California. Of those, only 11 firms follow the substantive requirements of §1281.96(a) , and of those, only three firms can be said to evidence robust and full compliance with the statutory regime, including §1281.96(b)’s formal requirements as to format, timing […]
by Jeff Sovern Reuters reports that the bill has passed an Assembly committee, and is expected to pass the Assembly in August (the state Senate has already passed it). Here's the part I don't understand: if California enacts the law, how can it avoid being preempted under the Federal Arbitration Act, as SCOTUS has interpreted […]