Category Archives: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

More on the House Hearing on the CFPB’s Constitutionality

Brian posted yesterday about the House hearing. For those who don't want to listen to the recording, you can find reports in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Rep. Ann Wagner takes aim at consumer protection chief), Housing Wire (Tensions escalate at House hearing on constitutionality of the CFPB), Money (This Lawmaker Just Gave the Perfect Defense […]

Book Published on the CFPB From Birth to 2015

The book is Meltdown: The Financial Crisis, Consumer Protection, and the Road Forward (Praeger 2017), by research economist Larry Kirsch and sociologist Greg Squires (George Washington University Sociology Department). Here's an abstract: Meltdown is the first book length account of the CFPB from its inception through 2015. With a foreword based on an interview with […]

Author of “The Imbecilic Executive” to Testify Before Congress on CFPB’s Constitutionality

by Jeff Sovern I originally had a different title for this post in mind, but I didn't have the discipline to resist the one above.  Not that anyone should have any doubts, but the CFPB director is not the executive the article refers to.  Anyway, the House Financial Services Committee is having a hearing titled […]

Why the DOJ Brief in PHH, Arguing that the CFPB is Unconstitutionally Structured, is Wrong

by Jeff Sovern The Department of Justice has now filed its brief in PHH, arguing that the CFPB as created by the Dodd-Frank Act was unconstitutional because the statute did not give the president the power to fire the Bureau's director without cause, and that the appropriate remedy is the one selected by the original […]

Bloomberg’s Chris Bruce: U.S. Set to Signal Stance in Landmark CFPB Powers Case

Here. Excerpt: A government brief in opposition to the CFPB [in the PHH case] likely would have significant weight at the D.C. Circuit, and would boost the odds that the Justice Department might block CFPB efforts to push the case to the U.S. Supreme Court later on. * * * “In the longer term, an […]

NerdWallet Article Explores What CFPB Has Done to Help Consumers

Brad Wolverton's article, Your Wallet Will Suffer If This Agency Is Gutted, is an excellent roundup of the Bureau's accomplishments that cuts across a variety of areas, including student loans, credit cards, debt collection, mortgages, payday loans, credit reporting agencies, auto lending, consumer complaints, military protections, and arbitration. Excerpt: Collectively, for every $1 in federal spending on […]

Trump Seems Uninformed During Discussions of CFPB, Firing Cordray with Community Bankers

by Jeff Sovern The American Banker article is headlined Trump discussed Cordray's future in community bank meeting (free content).  Excerpt: At one point, Trump expressed to the group that many had urged him to oust Cordray, but the president was not sure it was worth the political backlash. But Trump was apparently under the impression that […]

New CFPB Report Details Problems and Recent Reforms at Consumer Reporting Companies

A March 2017 report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sets out serious problems uncovered by examinations at the Big Three consumer reporting companies (Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax) and details significant new reforms that these companies must implement to protect consumers.    This article by National Consumer Law Center staff attorney Chi Chi Wu walks through […]

Bloomberg’s Gregory Roberts: CFPB’s Assault on Arbitration Stuck Between Rock, Hard Place

Here.  Excerpt: Any move by the CFPB to adopt a final version of its rule would almost certainly prompt Republican lawmakers to overturn it, with a long-term chilling effect on future regulation of the clauses used by banks and other financial services providers. But if the CFPB does not put out a final rule before […]