Category Archives: Consumer Law Scholarship

Politico reports Congress may “reform” the CFPB’s funding through a reconciliation bill

Here (behind paywall). Indeed, according to the article, “House Financial Services Chair French Hill said Monday that reforming the CFPB’s funding structure remains “the principal focus” of his committee’s efforts to attach legislation to a GOP reconciliation package.” The Senate would not normally be able to change the CFPB’s funding without getting votes from Democrats because […]

Empirical examination of consumer contracting

Tess Wilkinson‐Ryan, David A. Hoffman, and Emily Campbell, all of Penn, have written Contracts for Everyone. Herre’s the abstract: The architects of American contract law—judges, lawyers, regulators and academics—know a lot about what litigated deals look like, but almost nothing about the contracting of ordinary people. This Article offers a wide-ranging empirical account of how non-elites […]

Ayres & Klass paper on how judges can use the Restatement of Consumer Contracts

Ian Ayres of Yale and Gregory Klass of Georgetown have written How to Use the New Restatement of Consumer Contracts: A Guide for Judges. Here’s the abstract: In the absence of major legislation or regulatory action, U.S. consumers will continue to look to courts and the common law for protection when businesses engage in unfair and […]

Adam Feibelman paper argues that the CFPB should have authority over the Community Reinvestment Act

Adam Feibelman of Tulane University has written Relocating the Community Reinvestment Act. Here’s the abstract: The Community Reinvestment Act was enacted in 1977 to address the failure of financial institutions to provide credit and financial services in low-income communities, especially Black neighborhoods. The Act is part of a family of legal regimes, including the Home […]

Study finds large language models produce racial disparities in mortgage lending but that the disparities can be eliminated

Donald E. Bowen III of Lehigh University, S. McKay Price of Lehigh University – Perella Department of Finance, Luke C.D. Stein of Babson College, and Ke Yang of Lehigh University have written Measuring and Mitigating Racial Disparities in Large Language Model Mortgage Underwriting. Here’s the abstract: We conduct the first study exploring the application of large […]

Cathy Lesser Mansfield paper on current payment scams

Cathy Lesser Mansfield of Case Western Reserve has written It Takes a Thief….and a Bank: Protecting Consumers from Fraud and Scams on P2P Payment Platforms. Here’s the abstract: This Article proposes statutory and regulatory changes to the Electronic Fund Transfer Act; Regulation E; and the Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering regulations to protect consumers who use instant […]

David Horton article, Accidental Arbitration, discusses very broad arbitration clauses

David Horton of California, Davis has written Accidental Arbitration, 102 Wash. U. L. Rev. — (forthcoming 2025). Here’s the abstract: The Supreme Court’s muscular interpretation of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) has encouraged businesses to insert arbitration clauses in untold millions of contracts. However, this Article explores a subtler way in which arbitration’s kingdom is […]

Andrea Boyack discusses her survey of abusive boilerplate terms on the Consumer Finance Monitor Podcast

Here. From the description of the episode: Today, we are joined again by Professor Boyack who has written a follow-up article entitled: “Abuse of Contract: Boilerplate Erasure of Consumer Counterparty Rights,” University of Missouri School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2024-03, which is the subject of our new show. The abstract of her […]

Podcast: Should Congress Create a New Federal Charter for Non-Bank Payments Companies?

Here. The Consumer Finance Monitor podcast episode consists of an interview with Cornell’s Dan Awrey about his working paper “Money and Federalism,” “in which he advocates for the enactment of Federal legislation creating a federal charter for non-banks engaged in the payments business, like PayPal and Venmo.”

Lary Kirsch paper on State AGs and unfair mortgage lending

Larry Kirsch has written Power-Balancing: State Attorneys General and Unfair Mortgage Lending forthcoming in 9 International Review of Financial Consumers. Here’s the abstract: This paper is a case study in the enforcement of state unfair trade practice laws targeted at predatory mortgage lending and securitization abuses during the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. It considers how […]