Author Archives: Jeff Sovern

Federal Reserve Paper on Industry Reaction to Data Breaches

Julia S. Cheney, Robert M. Hunt, Katy Jacob, Richard D. Porter and Bruce J. Summers, all of the  Federal Reserve, have written The Efficiency and Integrity of Payment Card Systems: Industry Views on the Risks Posed by Data Breaches.  Here is the abstract: Consumer confidence in payment card systems has been built up over many […]

Where Was Consumer Protection in the Election Campaigns?

by Jeff Sovern President Obama has done more for consumer protection than any president in a generation.  His accomplishments include signing the Dodd-Frank Act, which created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, anti-predatory lending laws, and limited the power of traditionally pro-bank agencies like the OCC to preempt state laws protective of consumers; signing the Credit CARD […]

Study Finds Default Counseling Helpful

J. Michael Collins of the University of Wisconsin – Madison – Center for Financial Security, Maximilian D. Schmeiser of the Federal Reserve Board, and Carly Urban of the University of Wisconsin – Madison – Department of Economics have written Protecting Homeowners: Foreclosure Counseling Policies and Modifications of Mortgage Terms. Here's the abstract: Millions of homeowners […]

Creola Johnson on the CFPB and Payday Lending

Creola Johnson of Ohio State has written America's First Consumer Financial Watchdog Is on a Leash: Can the CFPB Use Its Authority to Declare Payday-Loan Practices Unfair, Abusive, and Deceptive? 61 Catholic University Law Review (2012). Here's the abstract: To stop payday lenders from skirting state laws, this Article asserts that the CFPB should exercise […]

Marotta-Wurgler & Taylor on Changes in Consumer Standard Form Contracts

Florencia Marotta-Wurgler of NYU and Robert Brendan Taylor of Kirkland & Ellis have written Set in Stone? Change and Innovation in Consumer Standard Form Contracts for the Seventh Annual Conference on Empirical Studies.  Here's the abstract: This article studies the rate, direction, and determinants of change in consumer standard form contracting. We examine what changed […]

David Horton Paper on the Federal Arbitration Act Preemption

David Horton of UC Davis has written Federal Arbitration Act Preemption, Purposivism, and State Public Policy, 101 Georgetown law Journal (2013).  Here's the abstract: The relationship between the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) and state public policy has long been unsettled. According to some judges, scholars, and litigants, the FAA precludes courts from invalidating arbitration clauses […]

CL&P Blog Special Report: Under-the-Radar Votes in the Senate on Consumer Protection

by Jeff Sovern Yesterday I blogged about senatorial votes on consumer protection (a more succinct version of the special report can be found in the American Banker).  During the period we studied–2009 to 2012–Congress voted on two major consumer protection bills, the Credit CARD Act of 2009 and the Dodd-Frank Act.  But other votes were […]

CL&P Blog Special Report: Which Senators Protect Consumers and Which Protect Banks?

by Jeff Sovern Now that the election is over, the post is back!  Read the American Banker op-ed on the study here.  My student, Andrew Lipkowitz, and I recently reviewed the votes of the members of the United States Senate going back to 2009 on consumer issues.  I'm reporting some of the findings today and […]