by Jeff Sovern Yesterday, as part of his response to the coronavirus, President Trump announced that he was temporarily waiving "interest on all student loans held by federal government agencies." According to the NY Times, monthly payments won't change. Instead, the monthly payments will go to reducing the principal, which will ultimately reduce the amount […]
Trump tweeted yesterday that "Only [suspending the payroll tax] will make a big difference!" (my emphasis). Yet Congress appears uninterested. And Trump himself just endorsed Nancy Pelosi's bill, which doesn't touch the payroll tax. For more on why, on policy grounds, Trump didn't get his way, read Why Trump isn’t getting the payroll-tax cut he […]
by Jeff Sovern The coronavirus is already having an impact on consumers and consumer protection. Some initial observations: The FTC and FDA have sent warning letters to companies reportedly making deceptive or unsupported claims about their products' ability to treat the coronanvirus. It's good that they're on the job. There have been reports of discrimination against Asians […]
Will Trump sign or veto? That topic is addressed in this article by CNN's Katie Lobosco. For other coverage, go here and here. This NYT's piece by Erica Green and Stacy Cowley does a nice job explaining the restrictive DeVos rule. Here's an excerpt from the CNN article: Senate Republicans joined Democrats Wednesday to overturn a […]
by Jeff Sovern The CFPB recently proposed various disclosures to include on validation notices pertaining to time-barred debt. Before doing so, the Bureau retained ICF International to test the notices empirically; this testing found that the notices enabled many respondents to better understand certain rights as to time-barred debt. So far, so good. But the […]
The Wall Street Journal reports that California passed a new law to cap interest rates—currently at about 37% a year—for some consumer loans. OppLoans, however, is charging 160% on a typical loan in California, using a partnership with a Utah bank to continue selling in the state despite the new rules. OppLoans isn’t the only […]
The Washington Post reports today that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has filed a lawsuit against Fifth Third Bank, alleging the bank’s employees opened fake accounts for customers in order to meet aggressive sales targets. The federal regulator alleged Monday that the bank knew its employees were opening fake accounts since at least 2008 and […]
A nice win today for attorney Kelly Jones and my colleague Adam Pulver in McAdory v. DNF Associates: Reversing the district court’s dismissal of an action under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and remanding, the Ninth Circuit held that a business that bought and profited from consumer debts, but outsourced direct collection activities, qualified […]
… but experts call it opportunistic. The Washington Post explains, here.
President Trump has nominated Nancy B. Beck, a former chemical industry executive, to lead the Consumer Product Safety Commission, an independent federal agency charged with protecting the public against dangers like toxic substances in products. The New York Times has the story, here.