Charlotte Haendler and Rawley Heimer, both of Boston College's Department of Finance, have written The Financial Restitution Gap in Consumer Finance: Insights from Complaints Filed with the CFPB. Here's the abstract: Consumers seek restitution for disputed financial services by filing complaints with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). We find that filings from low-socioeconomic (i.e., low-income […]
Author Archives: Jeff Sovern
The Conference on Consumer Finance Law and the Program on Financial Regulation & Technology at George Mason University’s Scalia Law School held a webinar recently titled “New Directions for Consumer Finance Law. An Insider’s Look at the Report of the CFPB’s Taskforce.” The speakers included Taskforce members Jean Noonan, Todd Zywicki and William McLeod.
Erik Durbin and Charles J. Romeo, both of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, have written The Economics of Debt Collection, with Attention to the Issue of Salience of Collections at the Time Credit Is Granted, 16 Journal of Credit Risk (2020). Here is the abstract: This paper considers the role of policies that protect consumers from […]
by Jeff Sovern Here. Both written and audio versions of the article are available. The article also reports on scam call centers overseas. I hope this is something the Biden administration moves on aggressively in its foreign policy.
by Jeff Sovern My new article is now up on SSRN: Six Scandals: Why We Need Consumer Protection Laws Instead of Just Markets. Here' is the abstract: Markets are powerful mechanisms for serving consumers. Some critics of regulation have suggested that markets also provide consumer protection: for example, Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman said “Consumers […]
Yonathan A. Arbel of Alabama and Shmuel I. Becher of Victoria University of Wellington have written Contracts in the Age of Smart Readers. Here's the abstract: What does it mean to have machines that can read, explain, and evaluate contracts? Recent advances in machine learning have led to a fundamental breakthrough in machine language models, auguring […]
by Jeff Sovern If you are curious to learn more about FTC Commissioner and CFPB Director-Nominee Rohit Chopra, here is a video of him discussing the FTC's remedial authority a couple days before the Supreme Court heard oral argument earlier this month in AMG v. FTC. The event was hosted by Truth-in-Advertising.org (TINA.org).
President Biden has named Dave Ueijo, the chief strategy officer at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as the Bureau's acting director. Kate Berry's American Banker story here (may be behind paywall). Excerpt: “He’s a great interim pick and he doesn’t regard the role as simply a caretaker," said [former CFPB Director Richard] Cordray. "He knows […]
Here. I think it's not behind a paywall.