Imre S. Szalai of Loyola of New Orleans has written The Prevalence of Consumer Arbitration Agreements by America’s Top Companies, 52 U.C. Davis L. Rev. Online 233 (2019). Here is the abstract: This article present the results of a study that examines the use of arbitration agreements by the top 100 Fortune Magazine-ranked largest domestic […]
Category Archives: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
That’s the title of a new report from Chris Peterson at the Consumer Federation of America. According to the executive summary: This study analyzes whether the CFPB, under the Trump Administration, is delivering on its statutory law enforcement objectives and stated commitments to take aggressive action in the area of consumer law enforcement, particularly where […]
by Jeff Sovern A post inspired by a question I heard Kathleen Engel ask: every year second-year students ask professors for suggestions for topics to write about for law reviews. Law professors and other lawyers also cast about for article topics. Meanwhile, administrative agencies often confront questions about what the law is or how it […]
by Jeff Sovern The CFPB's former acting director, Mick Mulvaney, compared the Bureau's public database to Yelp and threatened to take it private, though he never did so. Director Kraninger has not made public her plans for the database, to the best of my knowledge, and so public access to the complaints may still be […]
by Jeff Sovern Regular CFPB observers will recall that after Mulvaney took over as acting CFPB director, it took many months before the Bureau announced its first enforcement action. Well, the new director, Kathy Kraninger, has already announced her first settlement. This settlement might offer some guidance as to what kind of director Kraninger will […]
by Jeff Sovern The FTC was expected to run out of funding to conduct most of its operations at some point today, according to the Washington Post. The FTC's shutdown is obviously bad news for consumers. My understanding is that because the CFPB receives its funding from the Fed, it is not subject to the […]
Here, in The Hill. Excerpt: Senators voted 50-49, along party lines, to end debate on Kathy Kraninger’s nomination to be the next CFPB director, with no Democrats supporting her. Kraninger is likely to be confirmed next week after a contentious Senate floor debate over her selection.
Here, by Brad Wolverton & Alex Richards. I don't want to quote too much, so here is an incomplete excerpt: The federal watchdog agency created to protect consumers is not regulating two of the country’s fastest-growing financial institutions despite receiving voluminous complaints about them, NerdWallet has found. Escaping scrutiny are Green Dot Corp. — which […]
Here. Excerpt from Jeff Bater's report: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau took only three enforcement actions in the third quarter of 2018 and is on pace for the lowest yearly total in its seven years of existence. The bureau levied $1.6 million in penalties in the three-month period ending in September, compared to $7.3 million […]
by Jeff Sovern Acting CFPB director Mick Mulvaney famously wrote that he would not push the envelope. He explained: That entire governing philosophy of pushing the envelope frightens me a little. We are government employees, and we work for the people. That means everyone: those who use credit cards and those who provide the credit; […]

