Here. Here is the key finding section of the report: The Federal Reserve has set an embarrassingly low bar for issuer disclosures, as evidenced by the 7.5% score its model disclosure received in this study. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau obviously recognized the inherent flaws with the Federal Reserve’s implemented guidelines for credit card disclosures […]
Author Archives: Jeff Sovern
by Jeff Sovern One of the groups, the Woodstock Institute, has a report here. Among the reasons given are Wells Fargo's payday lending practices. The following excerpt from the Woodstock report has more: "Wells Fargo's mortgage servicing practices unfairly push some borrowers into foreclosure, devastating families and harming neighborhoods. Our clients continue to have their […]
Here. Behind a paywall, unfortunately. But here's a quote: In more than 2,000 letters responding to the CFPB's plan,bankers said several requirements — including a rigorous timeline for presenting borrowers with the new forms, limited deviation of estimated charges between initial and final disclosures, and an "all-in" annual percentage rate — will add constraints and […]
CL&B blogger Alan M. White of CUNY has written Losing the Paper – Mortgage Assignments, Note Transfers and Consumer Protection, 24 Loyola Consumer Law Review 468 (2012). Here's the abstract: In this article, I survey the state of the mortgage loan transfer system, the legal rules that govern it, and the widening gap between those […]
Creola Johnson of Ohio State has written Congress Protected the Troops: Can the New CFPB Protect Civilians from Payday Lending? 69 Washington & Lee Law Review 649 (2012). Here's the abstract: In 2007, Congress enacted a law, commonly referred to as the Military Lending Act (MLA), which placed a 36% interest rate cap on several […]
by Jeff Sovern For the credit reporting section of our casebook, I've been looking into studies of credit report errors. The FTC is in the process of conducting a long-term study of that subject, and along the way has conducted some pilot studies. One such pilot study subjected the credit reports of 128 people to in-depth […]
Marcia Johnson of Texas Southern and Luckett Anthony Johnson have written Defending Foreclosure Actions, 49 Real Estate Law Journal 516 (2012). Here's the abstract: With the rising incidences of residential foreclosures, many homeowners are overwhelmed by the foreclosure process and anticipated costs and often opt to vacate the premises without offering any defense. The American justice […]
by Jeff Sovern Here. It's the usual right-wing attack, most of which has been said before. I refuted some of what he says in August of 2011 in a column in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. One other point: Will complains that the Bureau will write law through case-by-case enforcement and that this creates uncertainty. Apparently Will […]
by Jeff Sovern Very common. In 2010, according to one study, seven percent of American households were victimized by identity thieves, costing them a total of about $13.3 billion, or, for those who experienced losses of at least one dollar caused by the misuse of personal information, an average loss of $13,160. See Lynn Langton, Identity Theft […]