Category Archives: Other Lending, Debt, and Credit Issues

State AGs release their top 10 consumer complaints

During this National Consumer Protection Week, many offices of state attorneys general released their annual list of top 10 consumer complaints received over the last year. The lists present broad categories for received complaints, such as automobile sales, Internet sales/scams, retail, professional or consumer services, banking and loans, health/medical, home improvement, and housing/real estate. Some […]

CFPB’s 2023 enforcement actions in a nutshell

In a recent blog post, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau offered a quick overview of its 2023 enforcement work. The agency reported that it filed 29 enforcement actions against financial institutions and resolved six prior lawsuits. Lenders, banks, and other entities that broke the law were ordered to pay approximately $3.07 billion to  consumers and […]

FDIC Consumer News

I just came across FDIC Consumer News — “the FDIC’s monthly newsletter to consumers, providing practical guidance on how to become a smarter, safer user of financial services, including helpful hints, quick tips, and common-sense strategies to protect and stretch your hard-earned dollars.” Recent articles include: Older Adults Helping Relatives Through Financial Support; Shopping for […]

CFPB proposes rules on fees for instantaneously declined transactions and on overdraft fees

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau yesterday proposed a rule to block banks and other financial institutions from charging non-sufficient funds fees on transactions declined at the time the consumer swipes, taps, or clicks — that is, transactions that the financial institution declines in real time. These types of transactions include declined debit card purchases and […]

Buy Now Pay Later and Regulation

Buy Now Pay Later, or BNPL, probably would never exist in its current form but for regulation. The Truth in Regulation Act does not apply to loans which are to be repaid in no more than four installments, and BNPL usually provides for repayment in exactly four installments. In other words, BNPL was created to […]

Two CFPB reports find more fee surprises

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau this week published two reports that show fees on financial products continue to shock consumers. Overdraft and non-sufficient funds fees still trouble vulnerable households. Excess charges from some college-marketed financial products still don’t appear to be in the best interest of students. In building on its continued research on overdraft […]

Are deferred interest plans abusive?

USA Today’s Daniel de Vise has an interesting article, 62% of Americans say this zero-interest payment plan should be against the law, about a form of consumer lending called deferred interest plans. Here’s an excerpt: A popular payment plan offered by America’s big-box retailers promises no interest on your purchase if you pay it off in, […]

CFPB orders BofA to pay $12 million for reporting false mortgage data

This week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered Bank of America to pay a $12 million penalty for submitting false mortgage lending information to the federal government under a long-standing federal law. For at least four years, hundreds of Bank of America loan officers failed to ask mortgage applicants certain demographic questions as required under […]

Dept of Education fines university $37M for misleading students on costs

The Department of Education has levied a $37.7 million fine against Grand Canyon University for allegedly misleading more than 7,500 former and current students about the cost of its doctoral programs. The Washington Post reports that, “Grand Canyon, which enrolls more than 118,000 students mostly online, disputes the charges and said it ‘will take all […]

Senate advances CRA repeal measure of CFPB small business lending rule

In March, as a result of a lawsuit brought by the California Reinvestment Coalition, the CFPB finalized a rule under Section 1071 of the Consumer Financial Protection Act, requiring lenders to collect and report information about small business credit applications. Today, by a vote of 53-44, the Senate voted to invalidate the measure under the […]