Author Archives: Jeff Sovern

Amsterdam Summer Privacy Course

We received the following announcement: The University of Amsterdam's Institute for Information Law (IViR) is accepting applications for its fourth annual Summer Course on Privacy Law and Policy which will be held from July 4-8, 2016,  The course focuses on privacy law and policy related to the internet, electronic communications, and online and social media.  It explores both the […]

Regulation, Access to and Costs of Financial Services, and the Payday Lending Example

by Jeff Sovern Critics of consumer protection regulation routinely assert that such regulation reduces access to credit and increases consumer costs.  For example, here is what Todd Zywicki wrote in his recent testimony before the Senate Banking Committee (footnote omitted): By imposing a regulatory regime that substitutes the judgment of bureaucrats for consumer decisions, Dodd-Frank […]

Gold Article on Compensation’s Role in Class Actions

Russell M. Gold of NYU and Wake Forest has written Compensation's Role in Deterrence, forthcoming in 91 Notre Dame Law Review (2016). Here is the abstract: There are plenty of non-economic reasons to care whether victims are compensated in class actions. The traditional law and economics view, however, is that when individual claim values are […]

Erichson Article on Class Action Settlement Issues

Howard M. Erichson of Fordham has written Aggregation as Disempowerment, 92 Notre Dame Law Review (Forthcoming).  Here is the abstract: Class action critics and proponents cling to the conventional wisdom that class actions empower claimants. Critics complain that class actions over-empower claimants and put defendants at a disadvantage, while proponents defend class actions as essential to […]

Mortgage Closing Delays Based on TRID Rule Evaporate

According to a report in HousingWire, Is TRID hysteria over? Time to close drops to 12-month low, the new TILA/RESPA closing disclosures are not delaying mortgage closings.  The story explains "lenders now have this whole TRID thing figured out, as the time to close a loan fell to a 12-month low in March." The TRID […]

More on the Senate Banking Committee Hearing

by Jeff Sovern Yesterday I posted about Senator Elizabeth Warren's takedown of Leonard Chanin, formerly of the Fed and the CFPB, now of MoFo, at a Senate Banking Committee hearing. I have since finished listening to the hearing and wanted to say a few more things. First, at the conclusion of the hearing. the Committee's chair, Republican […]

Elizabeth Warren’s Devastating Cross-Examination of Leonard Chanin at the Senate Banking Committee Hearing

by Jeff Sovern On April 5, the Senate Banking Committee held a hearing titled Assessing the Effects of Consumer Finance Regulations.  I've been listening to the hearing, which has three witnesses–selected by the GOP majority–who spent much of their time attacking the CFPB, and one witness- chosen by the Democratic minority– who supported the CFPB.  […]

Christopher Article on Mobile Banking and the Unbanked

Catherine Martin Christopher of Texas Tech has written Mobile Banking: The Answer for the Unbanked in America? 65 Catholic University Law Review, (2015 ).  Here is the abstract: In the U.S., the poor often lack access to mainstream banking services. Instead, they rely on expensive, poorly regulated alternatives like check cashers, payday lenders, pawn shops, and […]