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 […]
Category Archives: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
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 […]
So reports WSJ’s Alexander Saeedy (behind paywall). Excerpt: [Chase executive Marianne] Lake is warning that new rules that would cap overdraft and late fees will make everyday banking significantly more expensive for all Americans. Lake said Chase is planning to pass on the costs of higher regulation and charge customers for a number of now-free services, including checking […]
As I noted in yesterday’s post, Loper Bright preserves agency authority when Congress authorized the agency to exercise discretion. Loper Bright cited as an example of such a case Michigan v. EPA, in which, Loper Bright noted, Congress used a term or phrase that gives agencies flexibility, “such as ‘appropriate’ or ‘reasonable.” Now let’s look […]
Yesterday, the Supreme Court decided Loper Bright, in which it proclaimed that “Chevron is overruled.” But now we have to figure out what that means in particular contexts. One such context is federal consumer protection agency UDAAP statutes, like the FTC Act and Consumer Financial Protection Act. When those statutes give the agencies the power […]
Will consumer protection come up during the debate? My guess is not. It seems unlikely that a moderator or President Trump would raise it. I could see President Biden bringing up junk fees, as he has called for their regulation, in response to a question, though I am not expecting it. The headline issues have […]

