Category Archives: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Yonathan Arbel article asks why workers living paycheck to paycheck can’t be paid daily

Yonathan A. Arbel of Alabama has written Payday, forthcoming in 98 Washington University Law Review. Here is the abstract: Legislation lags behind technology all too often. While trillions of dollars are exchanged in online transactions—safely, cheaply, and instantaneously—workers still must wait two weeks to a month to receive payments from their employers. In the modern […]

Porter v. Kraninger

by Jeff Sovern Twice a year, CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger testifies before the House Financial Services Committee about the Bureau's Semi-Annual Report. A committee member I always look forward to hearing from is Katie Porter, a former law professor at UC-Irvine, among other schools, with an impressive record of consumer law scholarship and accomplishment. Representative […]

The CFPB’s Disappointing Abusiveness Policy Statement

by Jeff Sovern On Friday, the CFPB issued a Policy Statement on Abusive Acts or Practices. The Policy Statement is disappointing in several respects. First, it is intended to address a problem that has never been shown to exist. The Bureau explained that the Policy Statement is designed to ensure that “uncertainty does not impede or […]

CFPB Director Kraninger: Bureau will soon provide more clarity on meaning of abusive practice

by Jeff Sovern From Politico's Morning Money Newsletter: KRANINGER PROMISES CLARITY — Our Victoria Guida: “Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Kathy Kraninger said … her agency will soon provide more clarity on what constitutes an ‘abusive practice’ by sellers of financial products, tackling an issue that has dogged policymakers since the financial crisis. … More broadly, […]

Take the Abusiveness Challenge: Identify a Valuable Consumer Financial Product Not Offered Because of Uncertainty About Whether It Is Abusive

by Jeff Sovern The Dodd-Frank Act gives the CFPB the power to act against entities within the CFPB's jurisdiction for engaging in abusive practices. See 12 USC 5531.  Though that section explains what the limits are to the Bureau's power to proscribe abusive conduct, the industry has long claimed that it needs additional guidance as […]

Oh where, oh where has verification gone in the CFPB’s proposed FDCPA regulation?

by Jeff Sovern  Section 1692g(a)(4) requires debt collectors to send consumers a "a statement that if the consumer notifies the debt collector in writing within the thirty-day period that the debt, or any portion thereof, is disputed, the debt collector will obtain verification of the debt or a copy of a judgment against the consumer and a copy of such verification or judgment will be mailed to the consumer by the debt collector . […]

Call for Papers for 4th CFPB Research Conference on Consumer Finance

We've received the following Call for Papers: 4th CFPB Research Conference on Consumer FinanceDecember 12th–13th, 2019This December, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will host its fourth researchconference on consumer finance at Catholic University in Washington, DC. Information on priorconferences can be found here: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/data-research/cfpbresearch-conference/We encourage the submission of a variety of research. This includes, […]