Author Archives: Jeff Sovern

Podcast: Should Congress Create a New Federal Charter for Non-Bank Payments Companies?

Here. The Consumer Finance Monitor podcast episode consists of an interview with Cornell’s Dan Awrey about his working paper “Money and Federalism,” “in which he advocates for the enactment of Federal legislation creating a federal charter for non-banks engaged in the payments business, like PayPal and Venmo.”

Lary Kirsch paper on State AGs and unfair mortgage lending

Larry Kirsch has written Power-Balancing: State Attorneys General and Unfair Mortgage Lending forthcoming in 9 International Review of Financial Consumers. Here’s the abstract: This paper is a case study in the enforcement of state unfair trade practice laws targeted at predatory mortgage lending and securitization abuses during the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. It considers how […]

Loyola Consumer Law Review Call for Writers & Speakers at March Symposium on Big Tech and the Consumer

We received the following call for writers and speakers: The Loyola Consumer Law Review Seeking Writers, Speakers for its 2025 Symposium on “Big Tech” and the Consumer. The Loyola Consumer Law Review is hosting its annual symposium on March 21, 2025 at the Loyola University Chicago School of Law located in downtown Chicago. We are […]

Texas AG again rejects “earnings” argument about CFPB’s funding

As we previously reported, Texas’s conservative Attorney General takes the position that the CFPB is properly and currently funded. In a new filing captioned Plaintiff’s Response to Defendants’ Objections to Magistrate Judge’s Memorandum and Recommendation, Texas’s AG’s office states (footnotes and citation omitted): * * * Defendants attack the CFPB’s funding statute based on a flawed […]

Whither consumer protection in a second Trump administration?

The future, they say, is the hardest thing to predict. With that caveat, what can we expect from a second Trump administration for consumer prediction? Some quick thoughts: President-elect Trump will surely ask CFPB Director Rohit Chopra to resign so that he can replace Chopra with someone he prefers. Despite the fact that Vice President-elect […]

Who might succeed CFPB Director Rohit Chopra?

The American Banker’s Kate Berry reports in What the election means for the future of the CFPB (behind paywall but available on Lexis). If Trump wins, Berry reports speculation that Keith Noreika, Todd Zywicki, or Brian Johnson could be his pick to lead the CFPB. Something the article doesn’t note:  those folks all have experience […]

Various Texas authorities reject latest attack on CFPB’s funding

As reported in Politico’s Morning Money enewsletter, two courts in Texas and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, have rejected arguments that the CFPB cannot act because it is funded out of the Federal Reserve’s earnings and the Fed is currently running a deficit. Paxton’s office wrote that the: argument thus rests on the flawed premise […]

Another arbitration provider heard matters in which it had a conflict

Remember how the National Arbitration Forum, also known as NAF, arbitrated disputes involving an affiliated debt collector? Well, the CFPB has banned another arbitration service provider, Ejudicate from consumer arbitrations for a variety of reasons, including that Ejudicate heard matters brought by a party with whom it had a financial relationship, Prehired Recruiting. The CFPB […]