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 […]
Category Archives: Predatory Lending
Another important story from Jessica Silver-Greenberg & Michael Corkery here. I can't do justice to it with a brief excerpt, but see if this makes you want to read the whole piece (which you should): More than a decade after Yvette Harris’s 1997 Mitsubishi was repossessed, she is still paying off her car loan. She […]
Here. As we have noted before, the OCC plays a role in consumer protection, such as joining with the CFPB and LA City Attorney in the investigation into the Wells Fargo phony accounts. The whole article is worth a read, but here is an excerpt: In the early 2000s, banks successfully sued to stop Iowa […]
WSJ has a story here (behind paywall). The OCC famously declared state anti-predatory lending laws preempted as to national banks, which probably worsened some of the subprime lending leading to the Great Recession. It also received 700 whistleblower reports about Wells Fargo employees gaming the incentive plans (that led to the unauthorized accounts scandal) back in […]
by Jeff Sovern During the George W. Bush administration, then-Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan, a former bank lobbyist and lawyer, aggressively protected banks by claiming that state anti-predatory lending laws were preempted as to national banks (remember the predatory lending that contributed to the Great Recession?), among other things. So this is a position […]
Brad Wolverton's article, Your Wallet Will Suffer If This Agency Is Gutted, is an excellent roundup of the Bureau's accomplishments that cuts across a variety of areas, including student loans, credit cards, debt collection, mortgages, payday loans, credit reporting agencies, auto lending, consumer complaints, military protections, and arbitration. Excerpt: Collectively, for every $1 in federal spending on […]
Here. Excerpt: I asked [the] office [of Rep. John Ratcliffe, who has proposed to abolish the CFPB] to elaborate [on his claim that the CFPB hurts consumers]. I received a statement from Ratcliffe citing the group’s “qualified mortgage rule,” which he said “has made it harder for young people and retirees on fixed incomes to be […]
The WSJ has a report here (behind paywall). In the next version of the Financial Choice Act, House Financial Services Chair Jeb Hensarling is also reported to be considering eliminating the Bureau's supervisory authority, power to regulate payday lending, consumer complaint database and its research and consumer education functions. The goal appears to be to […]
Here's the press release: Jan. 24, 2017— An 18-month study of community approaches to controlling payday lending practices concludes there are 10 lessons for those interested in positively affecting local ordinances, according to researchers from the University of Utah and University of New Mexico. In “The Power of Community Action: Anti-Payday Loan Ordinances in Three […]
Here. Excerpt: Trump is expected to almost immediately dismiss Richard Cordray, who has been the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) since its creation in 2011. * * * "Consumer protection is important to a well-functioning financial marketplace," Neugebauer wrote in one of his arguments for a new CFPB structure. But "this protection […]