Category Archives: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

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 […]

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 […]