by Jeff Sovern Yesterday the House Appropriations Committee reported out a bill that would convert the Bureau to a commission, subject it to the congressional appropriations process, and delay (perhaps forever) the adoption of the arbitration and payday lending rules. More information on the Committee's web site.
Author Archives: Jeff Sovern
ALI’s Proposed Restatement of Consumer Contracts – Perpetuating a Legal Fiction? By Dee Pridgen The members of the American Law Institute (ALI) are currently working on what may ultimately become “The Restatement of Consumer Contracts.” This project could provide an opportunity for real law reform. Indeed, the original goals of the ALI include adapting […]
House Financial Services Chair Jeb Hensarling has proposed a Republican alternative to the Dodd-Frank Act, to be called the Financial Choice Act. The Committee's summary of the portions of the bill that affect the CFPB are as follows: SECTION THREE: Empower Americans to achieve financial independence by fundamentally reforming the CFPB and protecting investors. […]
or click here. Brilliant. Best line (and one I'm planning to use in my forthcoming FDCPA article): No good guy business model has ever been based on the logic of "what, don't worry about people's legal rights. I'm pretty sure half these unsophisticated morons can't read, right guys?"
In the Times's DealBook. Excerpt: Conservative lawyers have been muttering about the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for years, but their best argument is pretty novel. It is a “death by a thousand cuts” separation of powers claim. The idea is that if you count up all the ways that the Consumer Financial […]
by Jeff Sovern According to a report in HousingWire, a CompassPoint report concludes the following: “Our channel checks estimate that shifting the CFPB’s governance from a directorship to a commission would double the bureau’s already elongated rulemaking timeline, cut its enforcement activity by 50% to 75%, and result in a far greater importance being placed on […]
Chris Jay Hoofnagle of Berkeley has written Privacy and Security Through the Lens of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Economics. Here's the abstract: At the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), all privacy and security matters are assigned to a consumer protection economist from the agency’s Bureau of Economics (BE). The BE is an important yet […]
Kevin M. McDonald of VW Credit, Inc. has written Who's Policing the Financial Cop on the Beat? A Call for Judicial Review of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Non-Legislative Rules, 35 Review of Banking and Financial Law, 224 (2015-2016). Here's the abstract: This law review article addresses administrative power in the context of financial services. The Dodd-Frank Act […]
From the announcement: Key Industry and Policymaker Questions to be Addressed at the Conference: Is subprime financing fueling a bubble in the market for used cars? What are the parallels and differences between subprime auto lending today and subprime mortgage lending leading up to the financial collapse? What are bank regulators, […]
Here. Here's the beginning of the piece: Bill Doak and his wife, Linda, were preparing to buy a new house this spring when a mortgage broker made an ominous declaration after scanning their credit report: “Oh my God, you’re in trouble.” The couple discovered five late payments on the loan on the home they were selling in […]