WaPo has a report, headlined How robo-callers outwitted the government and completely wrecked the Do Not Call list, reporting that the FTC receives 19,000 complaints per day from people on the Do-Not-Call list about robocallers. The FTC not only does not have the resources to do much about it, but when it tries, its efforts are […]
Equifax was the subject of more complaints to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau than any other financial services company in all but one state in 2017, according to an analysis of agency data published Thursday. In every state but North Dakota, more residents complained to the CFPB about the credit reporting company than any other firm. […]
by Jeff Sovern A friend forwarded me the two images below. My friend, a prior H&R Block customer, received the 2017 software update for $24.95 while his son, who has not used the software in the past, was offered the identical software for $9.95. This type of price discrimination always makes me wonder about whether […]
by Jeff Sovern The WSJ has an interesting story out, Trump Administration Seeks to Change Rules on Bank Lending to the Poor, that reports: Community groups say the law should be expanded in order to bring opportunity to more low-income areas, while banks say they would do a better job of helping these people if the […]
by jeff Sovern The American Banker has the story, in a report headlined Is CFPB’s data freeze about security or a political ploy? The article quotes Minnesota's Prentiss Cox, as saying "This is a very thinly veiled attempt to shut down fraud enforcement, which is consistent with the not-even-veiled priority agenda item of the congressional Republicans to eviscerate […]
And would correcting these inefficiencies reduce income and wealth inequality? Read Consumer Law As Tax Alternative by Rory Van Loo to try to find out. Here's the abstract: The law and economics paradigm has traditionally emphasized tax and transfer as the best way to achieve distributional goals. This Article explores an alternative. Well-designed consumer laws—defined as the […]
by Jeff Sovern Last May, President Trump appointed bank lawyer Keith Norieka as interim head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Now that the full-time Comptroller has taken office, Norieka is returning to his firm "where he’ll consult large domestic and international banks on precisely the issues handled by the agency he […]
That's the title of this opinion piece in the American Banker by William D. Gunter, former U.S. congressman and a former Florida state treasurer and insurance commissioner.
by Paul Alan Levy After the Freehold Animal Hospital botched the neutering of a consumer’s dog, requiring the consumer to pay thousands of dollars for corrective surgery by a different hospital, the animal hospital agreed to refund the cost of its services as well as covering the expense of the corrective surgery, but only if […]