Category Archives: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Ira Rheingold Op-Ed on Wells Fargo and a Different Arbitration Dispute

by Jeff Sovern Different, that is, from arbitrations over the unauthorized accounts, about which we have reported (Wells has agreed to set aside its arbitration clause in the unauthorized account dispute and settle the claims in a class action; court approval is pending but seems likely). Ira's piece, titled Courts, Regulators Must Stop Wells Fargo’s […]

Who Is Jeffrey Joseph, CFPB Critic?

by Jeff Sovern Last month, Jeffrey Joseph posted Tyrannical CFPB tarnishes July 4th holiday in The Hill. Well, ok; others have so claimed, including House Financial Services Chair Jeb Hensarling. Joseph is described at the end of the op-ed only as "a business professor at the George Washington University School of Business."  I was curious to see what […]

USA Today Editorial: Republicans side with banks over consumers

by Jeff Sovern Here.  Excerpt: Faced with a choice between helping their constituents or helping themselves to a campaign donation haul, House Republicans are siding with deep pockets. All but one of the House’s 234 Republicans voted last month to gut a powerful agency — the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — that banks, credit card issuers, debt collectors […]

The House Appropriations Bill Is Much Worse for Consumers Than Originally Reported

by Jeff Sovern We posted yesterday about the House Appropriations Bill. I haven't studied the bill, but on a quick look, it contains a number of objectionable provisions from the Financial Choice Act (already passed by the House), including repeal of the CFPB's power to regulate arbitration and payday lenders and to block conduct on […]

More on the House Appropriations Bill That Would Make the CFPB More Accountable to Lobbyists

by Jeff Sovern From The Hill. Excerpt: A spending bill released Wednesday by the House Appropriations Committee includes major restraints for financial regulatory agencies. * * * Including the provisions in the spending bill, which is must-pass legislation, increases the odds they could become law. The measure places the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Consumer Financial […]

LA City Attorney: Why we can’t lose the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

by Jeff Sovern Some congressional Republicans have said that the CFPB was asleep at the switch when it came to the Wells Fargo unauthorized account scandal, and that it just piggy-backed on the LA City Attorney, which was the first governmental office to bring a case against Wells for the accounts.  But now the LA […]

Alan Kaplinsky Reports Rumor that CFPB to Issue Arbitration Rule By July 31 and Cordray to Step Down This Year

Here, in the Consumer Finance Monitor.  Alan also notes that the rule can be blocked by congressional invocation of the Congressional Review Act, litigation, or, if Cordray does indeed step down, by a new Trump-appointed director.