Author Archives: Jeff Sovern

Block-Lieb Article: Cities as a Source of Consumers’ Financial Empowerment

Susan Block-Lieb of Fordham has written Cities as a Source of Consumers’ Financial Empowerment, 34 Emory Bankruptcy Developments J. 388 (2018). Here's the abstract: Although cities are a poor place to situate consumer protection regulation, especially “top down” efforts to “command and control” lending decisions, they are an especially good source of consumer “empowerment” initiatives. Consumer […]

NBC News Story About How Potential SCOTUS Nominee Brett Kavanaugh “could reverse a century of financial regulation”

by Jeff Sovern Here.  Kavanaugh, of course, took the position in PHH that the CFPB is unconstitutional as currently structured.  Whether other potential nominees would have felt differently if they had decided PHH is unknown.

Conservative Kraninger Critic’s Op-Ed

by Jeff Sovern I don't often agree with J.W. Verret of George Mason, who formerly served as chief economist and counsel to Jeb Hensarling's House Financial Services Committee. But his warnings on CFPB director-nominee Kathy Kraninger deserve attention. Now he has written an op-ed for the National Review, Kathy Kraninger Is the Wrong Choice to Lead […]

Paper on the Use of Proxies to Determine Race/Ethnicity in Assessing Fair Lending

Yan Zhang of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has written Assessing Fair Lending Risks Using Race/Ethnicity Proxies, 64 Management Science (January 2018). Here is the abstract: Fair lending analysis of non-mortgage credit products often involves proxying for race/ethnicity since such information is not required to be reported. Using mortgage data, this paper […]

Not even consumer law professors routinely read consumer contracts and disclosures.

by Jeff Sovern When I surveyed consumer law professors about the content of their courses, I also asked them whether they read consumer contracts and mandated disclosures in their personal lives.  Here is an excerpt, but the article has more: Not one professor reported always reading contracts or disclosures. In contrast, 57% said they rarely or […]

My Latest Op-Ed: Mick Mulvaney turned the CFPB from a forceful consumer watchdog into a do-nothing government cog

Here.  Excerpt: Kraininger’s supporters have noted that she acquired considerable managerial experience as an associate director at the Office of Management and Budget and deputy assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security. That may help her with management issues, but it’s hard to see how it will help her make decisions about which cases to bring […]

Survey Results for the Content of Consumer Law Classes III

by Jeff Sovern I posted on SSRN the results of the survey I previously blogged about, The Content of Consumer Law Classes III.  This follows similar surveys in 2008 and 2010 (I bet you can guess what their titles are).  The abstract for the new version reads as follows: This paper reports on a 2018 survey of law […]

CFPB Drops Another Matter

by Jeff Sovern According to HousingWire, the CFPB has informed Zillow that it is dropping its investigation into Zillow for RESPA violations. We know about this because of a Zillow SEC filing. We will never know how many CFPB investigations have been dropped into companies that are not subject to SEC filing requirements. Nor can […]