Category Archives: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Have the Arbitration Sharks Jumped the Shark?

by Jeff Sovern On Saturday, I posted an entry, Kaplinsky & Levin Concede "Consumers rarely pursue individual arbitration" But Miss Mark on Why. Maybe it irritated Alan and Mark, because they then posted Professor Sovern Disagrees with Senator Warren and Concedes that Consumers Do Well in Arbitration But Raises Another Red Herring. I guess I […]

Kaplinsky & Levin Concede “Consumers rarely pursue individual arbitration” But Miss Mark on Why

by Jeff Sovern Earlier this week, Senator Elizabeth Warren issued a press release about the responses she had received from Bank CEOs to her questions about the CFPB's arbitration rule, Responses from Bank CEOs Demonstrate Positive Impact of CFPB Arbitration Rule, Undermine Industry Case for Reversal.  The press release contains a lot of interesting information, […]

House Again Passes Bill to Put Consumer Protection at Risk, This Time, In an Appropriations Bill

by Jeff Sovern Yesterday, the House passed an appropriations bill that incorporates provisions from the Financial Choice Act that would cripple the CFPB.  According to Law360: The base bill would make a number of changes to the CFPB, including bringing it under the purview of the normal appropriations process. In addition, the bill would remove […]

Some Comments on Recent Op-Eds Opposing the CFPB Arbitration Rule

by Jeff Sovern I wanted to comment on a couple of op-eds opposing the CFPB arbitration rule.  One is Joseph Cioffi's piece in the American Banker, headlined CFPB arbitration rule will still pose costs to consumers.  Though Cioffi (Chair of the Insolvency, Creditors’ Rights & Financial Products Practice Group at Davis & Gilbert) sees the arbitration rule as […]

Another Story About How Class Actions Help and Arbitration Hurts Consumers, Military Families

From Paul Bland in HuffPo, CFPB Rule Fight Forces Senators to Choose: Military Families or Big Banks. Excerpt: When Gary Childress of Raleigh, North Carolina learned in July 2008 that he was being deployed to Iraq as part of his Army National Guard service, one of the things he did before reporting for duty was to […]

“Too Popular to Pick a Public Fight With”

Many have probably already seen yesterday's article in the New York Times about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's popularity getting in the way of Republicans' efforts to weaken it, but just in case… Relying on emails and other documents obtained in public records requests, the article describes the CFPB's strategy to shield itself from the […]

WSJ: Consumer Watchdog to Scale Back Payday Rules

by Jeff Sovern Here. Excerpt: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, still under the leadership of an Obama-appointed director, is expected to scale back its new rule on small-dollar lending as it rushes to complete the regulation * * * * * * The rule is now expected to focus on short-term payday loans that are […]

Still Another Conservative Supports the CFPB Arbitration Rule

Colin Hanna, President of Let Freedom Ring USA, has penned Forced arbitration: Big banks' 'Star Chamber' in the Washington Examiner. Excerpt: Elbridge Gerry was a colonial-era plutocrat who became a patriot, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a champion of equal justice under the law. * * * One of his more famous sayings was […]

Lauren Willis Article on Ordering Firms to Eradicate Their Own Fraud

Lauren E. Willis of Loyola of Los Angeles has written Performance-Based Remedies: Ordering Firms to Eradicate Their Own Fraud, 80 Law and Contemporary Problems 7-41 (2017). Here is the abstract: In resolving cases of unfair, abusive, and deceptive acts and practices, consumer protection enforcement agencies often prospectively dictate—in great detail—the design of defendants’ marketing, websites, […]

Buckley Sandler Partners: Personnel Is Policy: Succession Possibilities At The CFPB

In Law360, by Andrew Sandler and Benjamin K. Olson  Here is an excerpt: It is not entirely clear whether the Dodd-Frank Act or the [Federal Vacancies Reform Act] controls in these circumstances. The one thing that is clear is that there will be real and significant differences in the operation of the CFPB depending on which […]