by Jeff Sovern Yesterday I blogged about senatorial votes on consumer protection (a more succinct version of the special report can be found in the American Banker). During the period we studied–2009 to 2012–Congress voted on two major consumer protection bills, the Credit CARD Act of 2009 and the Dodd-Frank Act. But other votes were […]
by Jeff Sovern Now that the election is over, the post is back! Read the American Banker op-ed on the study here. My student, Andrew Lipkowitz, and I recently reviewed the votes of the members of the United States Senate going back to 2009 on consumer issues. I'm reporting some of the findings today and […]
Ira Rubinstein of NYU's Information Law Institut has written Big Data: The End of Privacy or a New Beginning? Here's the abstract: “Big data” refers to novel ways in which organizations, including government and businesses, combine diverse digital data sets and then use statistics and other data mining techniques to extract from them both hidden […]
Lea Krivinskas Shepard of Loyola Chicago has written Toward a Stronger Financial History Antidiscrimination Norm, 53 Boston College Law Review (2012). Here's the abstract: This Article examines a topic at the intersection of consumer protection and antidiscrimination law: the use by employers and licensing organizations of applicants’ credit reports and financial histories in the hiring […]
In September, we blogged concerning the California electoral initiative that would require labeling of genetically modified foods. (We should know the answer on the initiative sometime tomorrow night or early Wednesday morning.) We followed up with this post about genetically modified food labeling requirements across the globe. Now, Brad Plumer has posted this excellent piece on […]
by Jeff Sovern One of the big changes in the CFPB's proposed mortgage disclosure forms is the de-emphasis of the APR. The APR has historically been one of the most central Truth in Lending disclosures. For example, for closed-end loans, it must be clear and conspicuous and appear in the "Federal Box" under 12 C.F.R. […]
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Richard Cordray gave two speeches last week in Seattle that shed light on the new agency's activities. In the first — remarks at a public hearing — Cordray talked about the agency's joint efforts with the FTC in regulating debt collection, principally under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. He noted, […]
Today, the Obama Administration issued final regulations for its new Pay As You Earn student loan repayment program. 77 Fed. Reg. 66088. The program enhances graduates’ (including law graduates') ability to repay their student loans, and it nudges graduates toward public service work. With minor exceptions, the program will apply to higher-education graduates who graduated […]
by Jeff Sovern Burrell v. DFS Services, LLC, 753 F.Supp.2d 438 (D.N.J. 2010) is a couple years old now but we haven't blogged about it before and the problem it describes has not been fixed so it still merits atttention. Burrell was victimized by an identity thief and complained about it to the creditors rather […]
Yesterday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued its Fall 2012 Supervisory Report discussing the degree to which financial institutions and service providers it regulates are complying with federal consumer financial laws. Part III of the report surveys significant legal violations detected by the CFPB and what the agency is doing to remedy those violatons and […]