by Jeff Sovern I've been listening to the several hearings in Washington this week at which former Equifax CEO Richard Smith testified. I haven't finished yet, and may have more to say, but here's a quick observation. Mr. Smith testified at various points that Equifax planned to make things right for consumers. For example, here […]
Author Archives: Jeff Sovern
by Jeff Sovern There's been a steady drumbeat of criticism for the CFPB from certain members of Congress for not moving sooner on the Wells Fargo unauthorized account scandal. These critics also tend to support legislation, like the Financial Choice Act, which would take away the power the CFPB used to fine Wells Fargo for […]
by Jeff Sovern The article is headlined Congress grapples with preventing the next Equifax-level hack. Excerpt: Their ideas included like fining companies that fail to adequately protect consumer data, restructuring the credit reporting industry to allow for more competition and requiring data holders to notify consumers whose information has been compromised. A slew of legislation aimed […]
In an editorial titled President Cordray Strikes Again. This time, it's the payday lending rule that has the WSJ up in arms. Here's the conclusion: The recent rule-makings give the President more cause to dismiss the director, and a D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals panel has held that he can be removed at will. Mr. […]
by Jeff Sovern As has been widely reported, Equifax waited about six weeks to disclose its breach, which makes me wonder if we would ever have learned about the breach if the laws requiring disclosures of breaches didn’t exist. And in recent years, Equifax has lobbied aggressively on breach laws. All this left me curious […]
Samuel Issacharoff of NYU has written Collective Action and Class Action, in THE CLASS ACTION EFFECT: FROM THE LEGISLATOR’S IMAGINATION TO TODAY’S USES AND PRACTICES, (Catherine Piché, ed., Éditions Yvon Blais, 2018 Forthcoming). Here is the abstract: Over the past 25 years, class actions have emerged as a central feature of Canadian law. The conceptual […]
Pat Akey of the University of Toronto – Rotman School of Management, Rawley Heimer of the Boston College – Department of Finance, and Stefan Lewellen of the London Business School have written Politicizing Consumer Credit. Here's the abstract: Using proprietary credit bureau data, we find that consumers’ access to credit decreases by 4.5 percent–8 percent […]
by Jeff Sovern The ABA Banking Journal (that's the banking ABA, not the lawyers' ABA) has the story here. Except: The OCC has conducted a study finding that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s arbitration rule is likely to increase the cost of credit by about 25 percent once lenders factor in the cost of class action litigation, […]
by Jeff Sovern The Hill has a story about the forthcoming speech. Excerpt from the story: President Trump plans to give a speech at the White House next week on his efforts to roll back federal regulations. “The President will be making remarks in the morning highlighting his administration’s efforts to eliminate excessive, job-killing […]
Jeffrey H. Dasteel of UCLA has written CONSUMER CLICK ARBITRATION: A REVIEW OF ONLINE CONSUMER ARBITRATION AGREEMENTS, 9 Arbitration Law Review 1 (2017). Here is an excerpt from the conclusion: Our review of websites with arbitration clauses, in-store transactions for retailers with brick and mortar outlets and online sales, and prior studies on whether online consumers […]