Christopher Lewis Peterson of Utah and Jeffrey Paul Ehrlich of St. Thomas University and McGuireWoods LLP have written Corrupt Joint Ventures in the Market for Residential Real-Estate-Settlement Services. Here’s the abstract: Closing costs in residential-real-estate sales have long acted as a significant barrier to American home ownership. In the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act of 1974 […]
Category Archives: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Here (may be behind paywall). Disclosure: I am a member of the Editorial Advisory Board. The piece discusses possible challenges to the Bureau in Congress and the courts.
One of the insidious sides of junk fees is that these charges tacked on to everyday goods and services are often hidden and mandatory. This is evident in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s latest report, Costs of Electronic Payments in K-12 Schools, which describes the hidden fees in online processing systems that facilitate payment for […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has released a report on payment processing companies that help school districts process children’s school lunch payments. The CFPB explains: “These private companies process payments made by parents who may have limited or zero payment alternatives. With a captive customer base, these companies can have broad control over fees assessed […]
Many financial services companies require their employees to enter into broad nondisclosure agreements. Today, the CFPB issued a circular to law enforcement agencies and regulators explaining that such agreements are unlawful to the extent they prevent employees from disclosing misconduct or cooperating with investigations. The circular is available here, and the CFPB’s press release is […]
Today, the CFPB issued a report on the growth of “earned wage” cash advances , by which employers partner with third party companies to offer employees loans based on earned wages. The report found that, in addition to fees, these loans typically have an APR of 109.5%. Along with the report, the CFPB issued a […]
Kate Berry has an interesting article with some nice alliteration in the American Banker, Debt collectors defend doctors in skewering CFPB medical debt plan (behind paywall but available at Lexis). The CFPB has proposed to block medical debt from appearing in credit reports. The proposal is based in part on the theory that medical debt, because […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has proposed “new rules to make it easier for homeowners to get help when they are struggling to pay their mortgage. The proposal, if finalized, would require mortgage servicers to focus on helping borrowers, not foreclosing, when a homeowner asks for help. The proposed changes would also make it simpler […]
Adam blogged earlier about Townstone but I wanted to say a bit more about what the case tells us about the CFPB’s authority concerning TILA and ECOA. As Adam noted, the Seventh Circuit cited Loper Bright and stated in note 15 that it approached the case “as presenting a question of statutory interpretation subject to […]
The Federal Reserve Board’s Regulation B implements the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, and prohibits creditors from discouraging, on a prohibited basis, applicants or prospective applicants from making or pursuing an application for credit. In 2020, the CFPB, who now enforces the regulation, brought an enforcement action alleging a lender “discouraged black prospective applicants from applying […]