CFPB Drops Another Matter

by Jeff Sovern According to HousingWire, the CFPB has informed Zillow that it is dropping its investigation into Zillow for RESPA violations. We know about this because of a Zillow SEC filing. We will never know how many CFPB investigations have been dropped into companies that are not subject to SEC filing requirements. Nor can […]

Industry Publication Reports Mulvaney “Lobbying Hard” for Kraninger and Infers that Kraninger Will Carry on Mulvaney’s Legacy

by Jeff Sovern AccountsRecovery.Net has a story, Mulvaney Lobbying Hard For Kraninger, Despite Saying He Wants To Stay Out of Process, which reports: Mulvaney has spoken out publicly in favor of Kraninger’s nomination and the report [in The Hill] said that Mulvaney has reached out to several Republican members of the Senate Banking Committee, which will […]

Paper on Improvident Student Lending

Joseph Sanders and Vijay Raghavan, both of the Office of the Illinois Attorney General have written Improvident Student Lending, Utah Law Review (2018). Here is the abstract: The idea that lending without regard to ability to repay should be illegal is not particularly new, but it gained purchase in recent years with the rapid growth of high-cost […]

Fleming on the History of Truth in Lending

Anne Fleming of Georgetown has written The Long History of 'Truth in Lending', 30 Journal of Policy History (2018).  Here's the abstract: This article offers the first comprehensive history of the development of mandatory disclosure rules for the cost of consumer credit. In contrast to prior studies, which begin with the creation of federal disclosure rules […]

Report finds cost of banking is higher for minorities

A new report from the think tank New America finds that basic banking services such as opening and maintaining a checking account can cost substantially more if you are black or Latino. For instance, community banks in predominantly black neighborhoods require an average minimum opening deposit of about $80, compared with about $68 in white […]

What does Judge Preska’s decision striking down the CFPB mean for consumers?

by Jeff Sovern Allison blogged earlier about Judge Preska's decision striking down the CFPB as unconstitutional and I've been wondering what it means for consumers. I hope some of our readers will offer their own thoughts in the comments, because I'm still trying to figure this out. As a formal matter, in terms of the […]

“Education Department ordered to stop collecting debts from defrauded Corinthian College students”

The Hill reports that a judge has ordered the Department of Education to stop collecting debts from all students defrauded by the for-profit Corinthian College, which shut down in 2015. "The court ruled in May that the Department of Education had violated privacy laws by using Social Security Administration information to help it determine how […]

Report that Kraninger “likely was deeply involved” in the Zero-Tolerance Immigration Policy

by Jeff Sovern Kate Berry in the American Banker is reporting that the nominee to run the CFPB, Kathy Kraninger "likely was deeply involved in President Trump's "zero-tolerance" immigration policy, according to former officials with the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Homeland Security." Meanwhile, a WSJ editorial argues that Kraninger "has more […]

Cell-service companies suspend selling of customer location data following misuse by prison officials

Verizon, AT&T and Sprint will no longer share customers' location information with several third-party companies who failed to handle the data appropriately, the Washington Post reports. The move follows an investigation by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) into the commercial relationships between Verizon; a pair of obscure data vendors, LocationSmart and Zumigo; and those companies' corporate customers. "Wyden's investigation found […]