by Jeff Sovern There's been a lot of discussion recently about whether the Post Office should offer banking services. The idea is that it could serve the unbanked, and that its many existing branches would cover the entire country (Disclosure: one of my brothers works for the Postal Service, though we haven't discussed this idea). For […]
Category Archives: Other Lending, Debt, and Credit Issues
Sandeep Dhameja, Katy R. Jacob and Richard D. Porter, all of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, have written Clarifying Liability for Twenty-First-Century Payment Fraud, 37 Economic Perspectives (2013). Here's the abstract: This article examines the governance structure of retail payments in the United States, provides an overview of payment fraud, and discusses in depth […]
Policy solutions to help consumers whose credit histories were negatively effected by the Great Recession and the foreclosure crisis.
Yesterday I blogged about a Times report on medical debt. Today the Times published an editorial, Alarming Abuses of Medical Credit Cards, as well as some letters on the matter.
Jennifer S. Martin of St. Thomas has written The Repo Man Did What? A Secured Creditor's Article 9 Right to Repossess Collateral and When Lenders Have Liability for Repossessions Gone Awry, 28-5 Commercial Damages Reporter 1 (2013). Here's the abstract: This Article observes that there is not a clear consensus among courts in how […]
by Jeff Sovern Here (behind paywall). Excerpt: Court decisions tied to the 1968 law fell 18% year over year during a12-month period that ended May 31, to 1,037, data from the National ConsumerLaw Center shows. That number is down 38% from the peak two years earlier. The pace of new litigation is also slowing. […]
Overdraft fees and abuses have spiraled out of control, snaring millions of consumers while generating billions in profits for banks. A new white paper by the National Consumer Law Center explains the legal avenues the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) can use to restore the standard of “reasonableness” to overdraft fees.
by Jeff Sovern A new Fannie Mae survey reports that nearly half of lower-income respondents and more than a third of higher-income respondents obtain quotes from only one mortgage lender. The survey also confirms findings in other reports that "a substantial portion of all consumers do not understand key mortgage elements." In particular, 41% of borrowers were […]
by Jeff Sovern One of the big changes in the CFPB's proposed mortgage disclosure forms is the de-emphasis of the APR. The APR has historically been one of the most central Truth in Lending disclosures. For example, for closed-end loans, it must be clear and conspicuous and appear in the "Federal Box" under 12 C.F.R. […]
by Jeff Sovern I have been listening to the audio version of Dan Areily's book, The Honest Truth About Dishonesty, and it may shed some light on consumer protection. Ariely explores the causes and limits of dishonesty. He reports on a series of experiments that suggest that many people cheat a little, but not so […]