Author Archives: Jeff Sovern

Empirical Study of Third Party Consumer Litigation Funding

Ronen Avraham of Tel Aviv University – Tel Aviv University, Buchmann Faculty of Law and Texas and Anthony J. Sebok of Cardozo have written An Empirical Investigation of Third Party Consumer Litigation Funding, 104 Cornell Law Review __ (2018).  Here is the abstract: This is the first large-scale empirical study of consumer third-party litigation funding in the […]

OCC’s Otting Wants to Change Community Reinvestment Act

by Jeff Sovern So Banking Exchange reports.  Excerpt: Otting believes a flaw of how CRA has evolved is its strong emphasis on low-to-moderate income mortgage lending and lending for low-to-moderate income multifamily housing. He thinks more types of activities should count toward meeting CRA’s intention. For example, he says, small business lending in low-to-moderate income […]

Will the Bill to Revise Dodd-Frank Fail Because the House and Senate Can’t Agree?

The HIll is reporting that the House insists on going to conference to resolve differences between the House-passed Financial Choice Act and the Senate bill, while the Senate Democrats who supported the bill say they would oppose major changes in it. The House bill makes major changes in the CFPB.

Politico’s Victoria Guida: Congress rides to the rescue of thriving bankers

Here.  Excerpt: President Donald Trump and other supporters of the major banking bill that cleared the Senate on Wednesday say they want to rescue the nation’s lenders from a crush of regulations. But far from being crushed, the industry looks more like it's booming. Banks have hauled in record profits for the last three years […]

Even Mulvaney’s Defenders Struggle to Identify His Accomplishments at the CFPB

by Jeff Sovern Mick Mulvaney has now led the CFPB for three and a half months and during that period, has been subject to attacks, including on our blog.  Naturally, his defenders are stepping up. For example, Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer, who chairs the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit and served on […]

If Bankers Aren’t Worried About the Regulatory Environment, Why is Congress Working on a Bill to Reduce Regulatory Burden for Banks

by Jeff Sovern Politico's Morning Money newsletter reports: BANKERS NOT AS WORRIED BY REGS — At the Consumer Bankers Assoc. annual conference, CBA Live, attendees were asked about their top worries. The regulatory environment was tops from 2012-2016. On Monday it barely cracked four percent. Which of course raises a question about why Congress is working on […]

Dari-Mattiacci & Marotta-Wurgler Paper on How Authors of Standard Form Contracts Learn and Revise Contracts

Giuseppe Dari‐Mattiacci of Amsterdam Law School; Amsterdam Business School; and the Tinbergen Institute and Florencia Marotta-Wurgler of NYU have written Learning in Standard Form Contracts: Theory and Evidence.  Here is the abstract: We explore learning and change in standard form contracts. We hypothesize that drafters (sellers) are more likely to revise the terms they offer when […]

Report That Companies Include Provisions in Arbitration Clause that They Know the Arbitrator Won’t Enforce–But That Might Suppress Claims Even More

by Jeff Sovern Level Playing Field is reporting that companies include in their arbitration clauses provisions that AAA, their arbitration service, has informed them have to be waived, meaning AAA won't enforce them. The clauses in question may deter consumers, who don't know that they won't be enforced, from bringing the arbitration at all. For […]