Category Archives: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

CFPB accepting applications for advisory committees

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has three advisory committees — the Consumer Advisory Board, the Community Bank Advisory Council, the Credit Union Advisory Council, and the Academic Research Council –that provide the CFPB with information about emerging trends and practices in the consumer financial marketplace. The CFPB is looking for applicants for the committees, including […]

GOP House Financial Services Committee members accuse CFPB Director Chopra of McCarthyism and extortion

Yesterday CFPB Director, Rohit Chopra, appeared before the House Financial Services Committee to answer questions from committee members, as he does at least twice a year. I haven’t watched the recording yet but according to reports in Law360 and the American Banker, some Republican committee members accused Chopra or the CFPB of being an appendage […]

Do lower fees mean consumers pay more?

That’s essentially what Brad Karp is arguing in a June 1 essay in the American Banker, The CFPB’s late-fee proposal would harm the consumers it seeks to help (behind paywall but available on Lexis). Karp claims costs would go up for “the large majority of credit card customers” because delinquencies would meaningfully rise. As the […]

American Banker: CFPB enforcement actions plummet under Chopra

Kate Berry has the story here (behind paywall but available on Lexis). Excerpt: * * * The consumer watchdog has filed just five enforcement actions so far this year compared with 20 last year, which marked the second-lowest number on record; just 10 enforcement actions were brought in 2018 during the Trump administration. By comparison, […]

Citizens Bank settles CFPB lawsuit over credit card disputes

Yesterday, the CFPB announced that it has reached a settlement of a lawsuit filed in 2020 against Citizens Bank. The agency alleged that the bank failed to properly manage and respond to customers’ credit card disputes and fraud claims. The settlement includes a $9 million civil penalty, and an agreement that the bank will fix […]

Supreme Court case on CFPB’s funding – first round of briefs are in

In the payday lending industry’s case challenging the CFPB’s funding as unconstitutional, the agency’s opening brief in the Supreme Court and the many amicus briefs in support of the agency have been filed. You can read all of them on the Court’s website, here. Public Citizen’s amicus brief is also posted on our website, here.

CFPB’s Chopra unhappy with credit scores

American Banker’s Penny Crosman has the story here (behind a paywall but available on Lexis), based on remarks at the Fintech Nexus conference. CFPB Director Rohit Chopra also spoke about how he wants to make it easier for consumers to switch banks so they can more readily take advantage of better prices or service and […]

CFPB proposes rule on residential clean energy financing

The past two decades have seen the growth of Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing programs– which allow property owners to finance the costs of energy-efficiency-related improvements, secured by the property itself and paid as an addition to an owner’s property tax bill. In the residential market, there has been a concern that these loans […]

House Financial Services Committee passes bills to subject CFPB to appropriations process, turn CFPB into commission

Claire Williams at the American Banker has the story here (behind a paywall but available on Lexis). The bills now go to the full House but are unlikely to go anywhere in the Senate unless SCOTUS finds the CFPB’s funding to be unconstitutional, in which case it isn’t clear how Congress will respond. The article […]