Category Archives: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

District Court Decision Coming Soon in Chamber’s Challenge to the CFPB’s Claim that Discrimination is Unfair

Regular readers of the blog will recall that after the CFPB announced that it interpreted its power to proscribe unfair practices as reaching discriminatory conduct, the Chamber of Commerce and various banking trade organizations sued the Bureau in the Eastern District of Texas (it’s always Texas) challenging the Bureau’s determination. Both sides later moved for […]

CFPB reports on unfair, deceptive, and abusive practices in consumer financial product lines

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has released a new Supervisory Highlights report describing unfair, deceptive, and abusive acts or practices across many consumer financial products. For example, auto lenders have originated loan balances above the real value of the car being purchased and engaged in illegal collection practices while servicing these loans. The latest edition […]

Here comes FedNow, the Fed’s instant payment mechanism for banks, credit unions

The Federal Reserve today launched FedNow, a new payment system that participating banks and credit unions can use to facilitate faster payments for their customers. So far, according to the Fed, 35 “early-adopting” financial institutions can receive payments instantly through FedNow. Does this new system, which facilitates sending and receiving payments at any day and […]

CFPB reports on risks to workers from employer-driven debt

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau published today “a report highlighting the risks employer-driven debt poses to workers. After a review of responses to the CFPB’s public inquiry, the analysis describes the growing prevalence of employer-driven debt and challenges workers and consumers face when they become indebted to an employer or an employer’s affiliate as a […]

Study finds CFPB complaint database affects mortgage approval rates–of rival banks

Yiwei Dou of NYU’s Department of Accounting, Mingyi Hung of the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, Guoman She, and Lynn Linghuan Wang, both of the University of Hong Kong – Faculty of Business and Economics, have written Learning from Peers: Evidence from Disclosure of Consumer Complaints, 77 Journal of Accounting & Economics (Forthcoming […]

Several states and CFPB sue Prehired for illegal student lending practices

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau joined with 10 state attorneys general and a California regulator to take action against Prehired for deceptive marketing and debt collection practices. The CFPB explains: “Prehired operated a 12-week online training program claiming to prepare consumers for entry-level positions as software sales development representatives with “six-figure salaries” and a “job […]

Chamber and bank groups that say discrimination is not unfair have used “fair lending” to refer to non-discriminatory lending

I have blogged before about the suit brought by the Chamber of Commerce and various banking groups against the CFPB in which the plaintiffs argue that the CFPB is wrong to describe discrimination as unfair. But when I asked a research assistant to see if the plaintiffs themselves use the phrase “fair lending” laws to […]

Christine Kexel Chabot paper on the CFSA case and history

Christine Kexel Chabot of Marquette has written The Founders’ Purse. Here’s the abstract: This Article addresses a new and impending war over the constitutionality of broad delegations of spending power to the executive branch. In an opening salvo, the Fifth Circuit held that Congress unconstitutionally delegated its power of the purse to the Consumer Financial Protection […]

BofA accused of opening fake accounts and charging illegal junk fees

CNN reports: “Federal regulators said Tuesday they found that Bank of America harmed customers by double-dipping on fees, withholding credit card rewards and opening fake accounts, all of which are violations of various consumer financial protection laws. As a result, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered Bank of America to pay more than $100 million […]

If the Chamber of Commerce’s claim that discrimination isn’t unfair is correct, why does Student for Fair Admissions have “fair” in its name?

I am working on an article about the CFPB’s determination that discrimination is unfair, a claim that the Chamber of Commerce and banking trade groups are challenging in litigation. Consequently, I am collecting examples in which people used the word “fair” to mean “without discrimination,” or conversely, “unfair” to convey discriminatory conduct. A prominent example […]