Category Archives: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Politico: Trump Admin Divided Over Firing Cordray, Has Spoken to Todd Zywicki About the Job

Here. Excerpts: “There has been talk of getting rid of Cordray, but I think they're trying to figure out what they can do and what [Trump] will actually go along with,” said a person close to the administration. Lawyers who say they’re providing guidance to the White House declined to comment for the record or […]

WSJ: Financial Choice Act 2.0 Could be Introduced This Week

Here (behind paywall). House Financial Services Committee Chair's Financial Choice Act, passed last fall by the committee,  is expected to be introduced again in a revised version as soon as this week. While Senate Democrats can usually block legislation by using the filibuster, as long as they hold together, the WSJ reports that some aspects of […]

What Wells Fargo’s Survival After Defrauding Millions Tells Us About the Free Market: It Isn’t Enough to Stop Misconduct

by Jeff Sovern As well-covered on this blog and elsewhere, Wells Fargo employees opened millions of sham accounts for customers, for which they have paid fines and suffered reputational damage. During the House Financial Services Committee September hearing on the Wells fiasco, some Republican committee members berated Wells Fargo's then-CEO, John Stumpf, for giving ammunition to […]

CBS News: Senate Republicans aim to gut debit-card safeguards

Here. This is about the resolution we reported about on Thursday to block the CFPB's prepaid debit cards rule from going into effect.  The resolution has now drawn the support of seven senators. Excerpt: A spokesman for Sen. Mike Lee said that the “CFPB’s prepaid card rule is overly broad” and would increase compliance costs. […]

Miles Kimball: The Philosophical Basis for Consumer Financial Protection as Part of Limited Government

Here. This has been up since December, but I only just saw it. It offers a perspective from an economist.  An excerpt: I can see three principles that can justify consumer financial protection beyond simple contract enforcement:  Duping people is fraud even if they wouldn’t have been duped had they had infinite time and infinite […]

Senator Moves to Block CFPB Prepaid Card Rule Day After CFPB Fines Card Issuers for Harming Consumers

by Jeff Sovern Who needs fiction when we have this?  Information about the resolution, introduced under the Congressional Review Act, and so filibuster-proof, is here.  It's sponsor is GOP Senator David Perdue of Georgia.  The CFPB's press release is here.  Here' s the first paragraph of the press release: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau today took action […]

Law360’s Evan Weinberger: If CFPB Loses PHH Case, Trump’s EO Requiring Elimination of Two Regs for Every New Reg Will Apply to CFPB

Here (behind paywall, I think). Excerpt: The White House later confirmed to Reuters that the executive order did not touch independent regulatory agencies. * * * That exclusion means that the Fed, the CFPB and other independent financial regulators, as well as the Dodd-Frank rules, are safe from the executive order for now. * * * […]

CNN: Trump pledges to ‘do a big number’ on Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform

by Jeff Sovern Here.  Trump criticized Dodd-Frank on the campaign trail, but as far as I know still hasn't said very much about which aspects of the statute he would change.  Consequently, it remains unclear what his views of the CFPB are. While he complained about the difficulties small business have in getting loans from […]