Author Archives: Jeff Sovern

American Banker Story Reports Speculation About Who Will Chair the House Financial Services Committee and Hensarling’s Future

by Jeff Sovern The American Banker ran a story, Will Hensarling's next job be in Trump administration? on a variety of matters. As for Hensarling, the story reported speculation that he might be appointed to run the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which he might prefer to leading the CFPB: "Running the CFPB is likely to be a giant […]

House Financial Services Committee Chair Jeb Hensarling to Retire at End of Next Year

by Jeff Sovern So reports the Dallas Morning News. Representative Hensarling is a strong believer in the free market, despite the evidence that it doesn't always work. I hope that this does not mean Hensarling would be the president's nominee to run (ruin?) the CFPB, an agency that Hensarling has been extremely critical of (compare […]

Is There Any Chance the President Will Allow the CFPB Arbitration Rule to Go Into Effect?

by Jeff Sovern Allison blogged earlier about CFPB Director Cordray's letter to the president urging him to allow the CFPB arbitration rule to go into effect.  While it would be wonderful if the president did so, there are many reasons to think he won't.  Among these: as regular readers will know, Vice President Pence broke […]

Nerd Wallet Publishes Important Collection of Stories About Rent-to-Own

by Jeff Sovern The landing page is here.  Here is an excerpt from one story, Kicking in Doors and Crushing Credit: How Rent-A-Center Torments Customers, though other stories on the web site merit attention, and there is more to this one than we can include here: Virginia real estate investor Olivia Quinn says she lost her […]

Updated Version of Why We Need to Save the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Here, in The Conversation. Excerpt: The House of Representatives has passed a bill that would cripple the CFPB by, for example, taking away the power it used to fine Wells Fargo for opening illegal accounts and concealing its complaint database from public view. In other words, it would force the bureau to sit idly by as financial institutions lie to […]

Senate Could Vote on CRA Resolution to Block Arbitration Rule Tonight . . .

by Jeff Sovern . . .  or  it could come later in the week. Or not. My speculation is that the Senate leadership will call the vote if they think they have the votes to pass the resolution but otherwise they will let it go until closer to the deadline. So the real question is […]

Am Banker Reports on Economists Who Are Critical of the OCC Claims in the CFPB-OCC Data Dispute

by Jeff Sovern The article, by Kate Berry and Ian McKendry, is headlined Fight to kill CFPB arbitration rule could rest on whose data is right. Here's some of what the article says about the OCC claims, though the article has more than I can insert here. "The uncertainty of the OCC's estimate is very large, […]

Politico Got Two Statisticians to Look at the CFPB-OCC Arbitration Statistical Dispute

by Jeff Sovern The story is headlined 'Plague on both your houses': Cordray, Noreika get scolding from statisticians. Excerpt: " * * * There isn’t strong evidence either way,” said Bruce Meyer, a professor at the University of Chicago. “There is weak evidence that says more than likely there is a positive effect on the cost […]

Times Op-Ed Shows How Markets Sometimes Fail to Curb Companies That Cheat Consumers

by Jeff Sovern The piece is by Richard Coniff and is titled Why We Don’t Vote With Our Wallets. Excerpt: [W]e get bored and look away from the dull crimes companies commit every day, like Wells Fargo foisting phony accounts and unwanted auto insurance on its customers. * * * Like Volkswagen selling “clean diesel” […]