Author Archives: Jeff Sovern

Most Republicans would vote no on anybody to head the CFPB

by Jeff Sovern So says an indentified financial services lobbyist, quoted in Neil Haggerty's article in The American Banker, Will Senate vote on CFPB chief come down to tiebreaker? (behind paywall but available on Lexis).  Here's the relevant excerpt:  A financial services lobbyist added that most Republicans likely won't vote to confirm any person nominated by […]

Breaking: SCOTUS rules that “a necessary feature” of an ATDS “is the capacity to use a random or sequential number generator to either store or produce phone numbers to be called”

Here, in Facebook v. Duguid. In other words, if all the device does is call numbers that you specificaly tell it to call, it's not an ATDS within the meaning of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

Is the payday lending rule coming back in some form?

by Jeff Sovern Yesterday, Acting CFPB Director Dave Uejio posted an item to the CFPPB Blog that suggests that the Bureau may rekindle its former payday lending rule in some form. Here's the post in full: The CFPB is acutely aware of consumer harms in the small dollar lending market, and is particularly concerned with […]

The NY Times on the latest in illusory consumer protections: the 12-minute DeVos system to decide student loan forgiveness

by Jeff Sovern Consumer law is filled with illusory consumer protections, and one form they take is the supposed obligation to give serious consideration to the possiblity that the provider is wrong in its claims. Examples include credit bureaus' obligations to conduct a reasonable investigation of consumer disputes–an obligation which has historically been discharged in […]

LA Times’ David Lazarus: AT&T’s new arbitration clause isn’t doing you any favors

Here.  It might be behind a paywall, but you can find it on Lexis. I enjoyed and recommend the whole column, but here's an excerpt: Jim Kimberly, an AT&T spokesman, told me that "arbitration is a faster, less expensive, easier means of resolving disputes." * * * For businesses, arbitration is indeed faster, cheaper and […]

CFPB rescinds disappointing abusiveness policy statement

by Jeff Sovern Last year we blogged about the CFPB's disappointing abusiveness policy statement. But things are different this year and the Bureau has wisely rescinded the Policy Statement, saying that it "was inconsistent with the Bureau’s duty to enforce Congress’s standard and rescinding it will better serve the CFPB’s objective to protect consumers from […]

Nomination News: Senate Banking Committee split on Chopra; Will Baradaran lead the OCC?

by Jeff Sovern Yesterday, the Senate Banking Committee split, 12-12 on the vote to confirm FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra to be the next CFPB director. According to Neil Haggerty's report in the American Banker (behind a paywall but available on Lexis), the Senate can still confirm Chopra but it will first require a motion to […]

Blast from the past: post on Barney Frank’s autobiography

by Jeff Sovern Barney Frank is speaking today at the Berkeley Consumer Law Scholars Conference. Here's something I posted in 2015 on his autobiography: I just finished listening to the audio version of Barney Frank's autobiography, Frank: A Life in Politics from the Great Society to Same-Sex Marriage, which Frank reads himself. I listened to it […]

Senate Banking Committee hearing on nomination of Rohit Chopra to lead CFPB tomorrow, Tuesday, at 10 Eastern

by Jeff Sovern You should be able to listen here. The American Banker's Kate Berry has a story here, behind a paywall, unfortunately, but if you have Lexis, you can read it there. Excerpt: [Chopra's] aggressive past statements coupled with the power and high profile that comes with the CFPB job could lead to some […]