Bambauer et al. Article on Defects in Privacy Disclosures

Jane R. Bambauer, Jonathan D. Loe, and D. Alex Winkelman, all of Arizona have written A Bad Education, 2016 University of Illinois Law Review ___ (Forthcoming).   Here is the abstract: Mandated disclosure laws achieve their regulatory goals by educating the public about latent attributes of a product or service. At their best, they improve the accuracy of […]

House Financial Services Committee Chair Hensarling Releases Bill To Cripple Consumer Protection

by Jeff Sovern Hensarling calls the bill the Financial Choice Act.  Make America Great for Banks Act is closer to the truth. Based on a quick look, the bill would give bank lobbyists power over the CFPB by subjecting it to the appropriations process, increase the likelihood of deadlocks by turning the Bureau into a commission, […]

CFPB Debt Collection Regs SBREFA Panel Reportedly Coming in August

InsideArm.com reports that it "has learned from multiple industry sources" that the CFPB will hold a Small Business Regulatory Fairness Enforcement Act (SBREFA) proceeding the week of August 22 in connection with the Bureau's forthcoming debt collection regulations.  The Bureau has to convene the SBREFA proceeding before proposing the new rules.  Just to give a sense […]

“Bank Regulators Aim at Online Small Business Lending”

The Wall Street Journal reports: Small businesses have been a growing source of revenue for online lenders. Now, federal regulators are exploring whether they should intensify oversight of these loan deals. “These are basically mom-and-pop operations getting, you know, very small loans,” John Williams, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, told The […]

CFPB reports that mortgage servicers’ technology failures cause violations of servicing rule

A new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau supervision report finds that some mortgage servicers continue to use failed technology that has already harmed consumers, putting those companies in violation of the CFPB’s new servicing rules. In its examinations covering numerous mortgage servicers since the new CFPB rules took effect in January 2014, CFPB examiners have found […]

Merrill Lynch to pay $415 million for misusing customer cash

Reuter's reports: Bank of America Corp's Merrill Lynch unit will pay $415 million and admit to wrongdoing to settle charges that it misused customer cash to generate profits and failed to safeguard their securities from creditors, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Thursday. An SEC investigation found that Merrill Lynch violated the SEC’s […]

Mobile advertising company settles FTC charges of tracking hundreds of millions of consumers’ locations without permission

Singapore-based mobile advertising company InMobi will pay $950,000 in civil penalties and implement a comprehensive privacy program to settle Federal Trade Commission charges it deceptively tracked the locations of hundreds of millions of consumers – including children – without their knowledge or consent to serve them geo-targeted advertising. The FTC alleges that InMobi mispresented that […]

GAO report on CFPB: “Additional Actions Needed to Support a Fair and Inclusive Workplace”

In light about discrimination and retaliation at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and concerns about CFPB’s management practices and culture, the Government Accountability Office was asked to review personnel management and organizational culture issues at the CFPB. This week, GAO released its report, examining (1) CFPB employees’ views on these issues and (2) CFPB’s efforts […]

Los Angeles addresses evictions used to make room for Airbnb rentals

Courthouse News has this report: Citing a growing housing crisis in Los Angeles, the city attorney has begun targeting landlords who illegally convert their rent-controlled apartment buildings to short-term tourist rentals or hotels. "In a city with a profound shortage of affordable housing, unlawfully converting rental units to operate [as] hotels has got to stop," […]