Raymond H. Brescia of Albany has written The Community Reinvestment Act: Guilty, but Not as Charged. Here's the abstract: Since its passage in 1977, the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) has charged federal bank regulators with "encourag[ing]" certain financial institutions "to help meet the credit needs of the local communities in which they are chartered consistent […]
Author Archives: Jeff Sovern
Today's Times has an editorial, Bleeding the Borrowers Dry. Here is the final paragraph: A bill pending in the Senate, known as the Safe Lending Act, would require all online lenders to comply with state laws that provide stronger consumer protections than the federal statutes. It would establish once and for all that payday loan […]
On Sunday, Brian posted a link to the Times story, Major Banks Play Key Role in Payday Loans Banned by States. Yesterday, the Times followed up with a report, Dimon Pledges to Change JPMorgan’s Practices on Payday Loans. The specific practice that has drawn Dimon's ire is of withdrawing money from depositors' accounts to repay payday loans […]
Here. According to the report, Ramirez was an intellectual property lawyer before joining the FTC. It's not clear how much expertise she had in consumer law before becoming a commissioner.
by Jeff Sovern Here. According to the story, Representative Hensarling called the CFPB "Orwellian-titled." So I guess he doesn't think the Bureau actually protects consumers (or maybe he thinks it isn't really a bureau). I would love to hear Representative Hensarling's reasoning on that one. Does he believe, for example, that clearer disclosures are harmful to […]
by Jeff Sovern Here. But their definition of "few" still seems high. "Only" 4.2% of the consumers whose homes were foreclosed upon are said to have been "harmed" by robosigning. That seems to come from a report from the OCC which has historically been captured by the banks, though since the appointment of Thomas Curry […]
Vanderbilt Ph.D. student Kathryn Fritzdixon, Jim Hawkins of Houston, & Paige Marta Skiba of Vanderbilt have writtetn Dude, Where's My Car Title?: The Law, Behavior, and Economics of Title Lending Markets. Here's the abstract: Millions of credit-constrained borrowers turn to title loans to meet their liquidity needs. Legislatures and regulators have debated how to best […]
Dalie Jimenez of Connecticut, James Greiner of Harvard, Lois R. Lupica of Maine, & Rebecca L. Sandefur of the American Bar Foundationand Illinois have written Using a Randomized Control Trial to Accomplish Multiple Goals: An RCT Evaluating What Works for Individuals in Financial Distress, Investigating the Debt Collection System, Exploring Ways to Increase Access to […]
Ariel Porat of Tel Aviv University and Chicago and Lior Strahilevitz of Chicago have written Personalizing Default Rules and Disclosure with Big Data. Here's the abstract: This paper provides the first comprehensive account of personalized default rules and personalized disclosure in the law. Under a personalized approach to default rules, individuals are assigned default terms […]
by Jeff Sovern Today's Times Haggler column, Calling Out the Robocaller, written by David Segal, and about a troublesome telemarketer, Your Financial Ladder, operated by the Helfenstines, includes an ominous discussion about the effectiveness of a Florida consumer protection agency: [A] spokesman for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services says it recently started an investigation […]