The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau yesterday took action "against a ring of law firms and attorneys who collaborated to charge illegal fees to consumers seeking debt relief. In a complaint filed in federal court, the CFPB alleges that Howard Law, P.C., the Williamson Law Firm, LLC, and Williamson & Howard, LLP, as well as attorneys […]
Here (behind paywall, I think). Excerpt: The White House later confirmed to Reuters that the executive order did not touch independent regulatory agencies. * * * That exclusion means that the Fed, the CFPB and other independent financial regulators, as well as the Dodd-Frank rules, are safe from the executive order for now. * * * […]
by Jeff Sovern Here. Trump criticized Dodd-Frank on the campaign trail, but as far as I know still hasn't said very much about which aspects of the statute he would change. Consequently, it remains unclear what his views of the CFPB are. While he complained about the difficulties small business have in getting loans from […]
So speculates Joseph Rubin in the American Banker here (free content). Here is the paragraph with the speculation: The Washington rumor mill has already focused on potential CFPB successors preferred by the Trump administration, such as Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Texas, and George Mason University professor Todd Zywicki. Both are critics of the CFPB, and would likely […]
Here. Excerpt: "OneWest Bank did not 'robo-sign' documents," Mnuchin wrote in response to questions from individual senators, "and as the only bank to successfully complete the Independent Foreclosure Review required by federal banking regulators to investigate allegations of 'robo-signing,' I am proud of our institution's extremely low error rate." But a Dispatch analysis of nearly […]
by Paul Alan Levy i-Geniuses is a Houston company that repairs Apple products; it especially touts its ability to repair computers suffering from liquid damage on a fast turnaround schedule. A number of former customers have expressed concerns about the success of the repairs, about longer-than-advertised repair times, and especially about their believe that the […]
Here, in The Hill. Beavers is director of diversity and inclusion at The Greenlining Institute. Excerpt: Some critics—not previously known as leaders on diversity or civil rights—claim that the CFPB has become “a breeding ground” for discrimination that devalues employees of color and women. As an advocate for diversity—and specifically as an advocate for communities of color—I have […]
Here. Excerpt: [L]ast month the Federal Trade Commission made it easier for cars to be billed as “certified,” even if they were under recall and hadn’t been fixed yet. * * * Buyers who wonder how safe it is to drive with a recalled Takata airbag and check the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website […]
Here. Excerpt: The basic story is that if it's possible to make lots of money by using deceptive contracts to ripoff consumers, then many very talented and hard-working people will spend their time developing schemes to ripoff consumers. Instead of doing things that contribute to consumers' well-being (e.g. developing better products), these people will be […]
by Paul Alan Levy Shiva Ayyadurai is a computer scientist who insists that it was he who, as a child prodigy, invented email. Although his claim has been widely derided by many of the major figures who were party to the technological advances that created the Internet as well as systems of direct communication such as […]