The HIll has the story here. Chopra has a strong record of protecting consumers, having been the student loan ombudsman at the CFPB, and is currently at the Consumer Federation of America (we quoted him just last week). The FTC currently has two commissioners in place out of five, one from each major party, and cannot […]
Author Archives: Jeff Sovern
Here, in the Times's Economic View column. Excerpt: [T]he Trump administration is taking us in the wrong direction, making student loans riskier, more expensive and more burdensome for borrowers. First, the Education Department has weakened accountability for the companies that administer student loans. Second, it has made it more difficult for borrowers to apply for, […]
Florencia Marotta-Wurgler of NYU has written Self-Regulation and Competition in Privacy Policies, 45 Journal of Legal Studies (2016). Here's the abstract I investigate alternative explanations for the content of privacy policies. Under one model of self-regulation, firms signal their privacy protections to consumers by highlighting compliance with third-party guidelines. However, in a sample of 249 […]
by Jeff Sovern It's for an arbitration symposium at Rutgers and is available for download here. I would love to hear comments! Here's the abstract: In September 2016, regulators charged Wells Fargo with opening millions of unauthorized accounts on behalf of its customers. When some of those customers filed class actions against Wells, the bank initially […]
Report here. Excerpt: One of Jiménez’s biggest undertakings to date is the Financial Distress Research Project, an initiative she supervises with James Greiner and Lois Lupica, law professors at Harvard and the University of Maine law schools respectively. The goal of the enterprise – a signature project of the Access to Justice Lab at Harvard […]
The HIll report is here. Excerpt: The CHOICE Act also places major restraints on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), an agency created by Dodd-Frank that the GOP has long called unaccountable, abusive and redundant. The bill renames the CFPB the Consumer Law Enforcement Agency and reduces its power to enforce pre-existing consumer protection laws. […]
Here. Excerpt from Senator Warren's statement: I am deeply concerned by the Administration's decision to remove an experienced, independent regulator like Comptroller Curry and replace him with a career bank lawyer.
The report about tonight is here while the report about tomorrow is here. In either case, it's soon. Not surprisingly, in light of the makeup of the Committee, CFPB supporters' proposals are being rejected.
by Jeff Sovern Rohit Chopra senior fellow at the Consumer Federation of America and formerly student loan ombudsman at the CFPB, testified last week on the Choice Act and listed a few of student loan cases that could not have been brought under the Choice Act. Here is his list: While many know of Wells Fargo’s […]
by Jeff Sovern During hearings on the CFPB and the Choice Act, I kept hearing critics of the CFPB saying they want to increase its accountability (I haven't started listening to the markups yet, but it's probably a recurring theme there too). In fact, the CFPB is accountable. But assume it isn't for the moment. CFPB […]