That's the topic of as Glass-Steagall's Demise Inevitable and Unimportant? by law prof Arthur Wilmarth. Here's the abstract: The demise of the Glass-Steagall Act was the result of affirmative policy decisions by federal regulators and Congress, and it was not the inevitable byproduct of market forces. Economic disruptions and financial innovations posed serious challenges to the viability […]
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Bloomberg reports: Payday lenders could escape tighter regulation as the Trump-led Consumer Financial Protection bureau considers eliminating a requirement that they first assess borrowers’ ability to repay loans. The CFPB is expected to either propose eliminating the rule’s strict ability to repay standards or delaying their effective date so that they can undergo further review, […]
We’ve covered before the Department of Education’s recent attempt to gut a rule adopted under the Obama administration to help student loan borrowers and rein in for-profit colleges. The regulation, commonly referred to as the borrower defense rule, was supposed to take effect on July 1, 2017. The Department issued a series of delays, which […]
The Philadelphia Tribune report on a new poll that, a decade after the financial crisis, finds that consumers still support financial regulation and related enforcement. Moreover, on payday and car-title lending, "consumer scorn has grown even stronger over the past year for these small-dollar, debt-trap loans that come with triple-digit interest rates." The full article […]
The Dodd-Frank Act prohibits “unfair, deceptive, or abusive” acts and practices by the financial companies regulated under the Act, and gives the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau authority to enforce the prohibition. The Act defines "abusive" as an act or practice that: (1) Materially interferes with the ability of a consumer to understand a term or […]
Reuters reports that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is considering sanctions against Citigroup for denying minority customers the kinds of mortgage discounts that the bank offered to many other borrowers. Citigroup, while performing a review to ensure it adhered to fair lending standards, reportedly found that some minority borrowers were not getting […]
Law prof Albert Lin has written President Trump's War on Regulatory Science. Here is the abstract: The Trump administration has taken numerous actions that appear hostile to scientists, scientific research, and scientific data, leading some observers to assert that a war on science is underway. A more precise characterization is that the Trump administration is engaging […]
The Kentucky Supreme Court's unanimous decision is Northern Kentucky Area Development District v. Snyder. The first two paragraphs of the court's opinion summarizes its reasoning: Kentucky Revised Statute (“KRS”) 336.700(2) prohibits employers from conditioning employment on an existing employee’s or prospective employee’s agreement to “waive, arbitrate, or otherwise diminish any existing or future claim, right, or […]
In a filing last night, the Department of Education announced that it will miss a November 1 statutory deadline to publish a rule that rolls back protections for student loan borrowers and students defrauded by for-profit colleges. Those protections, part of what’s known as the Obama-era borrower defense rule, were set to go into effect […]
Citing the U.S. Supreme Court's precedent in favor of arbitration, California Governor Jerry Brown yesterday vetoed a bill that would end the practice of employers requiring workers to use private arbitration instead of the courts to resolve sexual harassment complaints. The bill would not have barred workers from voluntarily opting for arbitration, only barred predispute […]