by Jeff Sovern Glen Thrush has an article in the Times headlined Mulvaney Demotes Unit That Polices Student Loans in Consumer Bureau Reshuffle. Excerpt: The change comes at a critical moment in the agency’s effort to rein in abuses in the student loan industry. The program, started under the Obama administration, has clawed back about $750 […]
The Sixth Circuit today decided Health One Medical Center v. Mohawk, a mighty strange case under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (the federal anti-junk-fax statute). The first paragraph of Judge Kethledge's opinion sums it up: Some questions seem to arise only in class-action lawsuits. Here, a seller of prescription drugs sent junk faxes to various medical […]
by Jeff Sovern It sounds like the House will vote on, and presumably pass, the Senate bill as is. In return, the Senate will take up certain as-yet-unidentified House bills that passed by a margin of at least two-thirds, meaning that at least some Democrats voted for them. It's not clear, but it looks like […]
Joseph Lawler reports in the Washington Examiner. Excerpt: [T]he resolution passed Tuesday raises a tricky legal question regarding what it means for Congress to disapprove of informal guidance that an agency sends to businesses. When Congress disapproves of a rule enforced by an agency, the meaning is clear: The agency is not allowed to enforce […]
American Banker reports that the "White House is dragging out the nomination of a permanent director for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to ensure that acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney calls the shots at the agency until the end of the year or longer." President Trump is expected to name J. Mark McWatters, the chairman […]
Eight of the 10 financial institutions that are the subjects of the most complaints in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau public database contributed to acting Director Mick Mulvaney while he was in Congress, according to an analysis published today by Public Citizen. Since 2012, the CFPB has maintained the publicly available database of consumer complaints […]
Adam Levitin has written about what this means–or doesn't mean–at Credit Slips.
The Wall Street Journal reports: "Wells Fargo said Friday it reached a $480 million preliminary settlement agreement in a securities fraud class-action suit. The settlement comes at a difficult time for Wells Fargo, which is dealing with multiple investigations and settlements. The problems kicked off in September 2016 when its sales-practices scandal erupted, and the […]
Here, in the LA Times. The headline reads White House-backed bill purports to strengthen consumer protection. It does the opposite. Excerpt: California's credit-freeze law, for example, says no one can access your credit file if a freeze is in place, including a potential employer performing a background check or an insurance company. The new federal bill, […]
by Jeff Sovern During the House Financial Services Committee hearing in which the Committee heard from CFPB Acting Director Mick Mulvaney, there was some discussion about how the number of CFPB staffers had barely gone down under Mr. Mulvaney's leadership–it was said that the number of CFPB employees had declined by something like ten–and that […]