Bankruptcy Blogs

Payday Rulemaking: Is Too Much Competition a Bad Thing?

06/02/16

The CFPB's proposed payday rule making is out.  There's a nice summary here.  

I'm going to reserve comment other than to note a critical implication of a rare area of agreement between the supporters and opponents of the payday rule:  it will result in a lot of payday lenders closing up shop.  That might be just what the industry needs.

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Law & Society, 2016 Panels on Household Finance

06/02/16

If you happen to be at the 2016 Law & Society Association meetings in New Orleans, stop by the panels from the Collaborative Research Network (CRN) on Household Finance. This group got its start as an international collaborative studying overindebtedness thanks for the leadership of people like the late Jean Braucher, Johanna Niemi, Iain Ramsay, and Bill Whitford. We have scholars from all over the world and from diverse disciplines thinking about how law on the ground affects household financial outcomes.

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Branch Success, or Failure, Lies with Middle Management

06/02/16

Branch managers are essential, but it is the manager's manager that can set the tone for the performance of a bank's branch program.

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Morning Scan: Mortgage Laws Put Lenders in a Bind; Rappers' Fraud Confession

06/02/16

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

State of Banking, Continued: The regulatory push for banks to take fewer risks in mortgage lending has also meant that banks are issuing fewer mortgages to African-Americans and Hispanics. As part of the new regulatory scheme, banks have moved into making high-dollar mortgages because they carry less risk, the Wall Street Journal reports in its ongoing series on the state of banking. In the process, low-income and middle-income consumers are finding it...

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Bank Be Nimble, Bank Be Quick

06/02/16

How Eastern Bank pulled off something few community banks have: launching a digital lending product that the 197-year-old mutual dreamed up in its innovation lab.

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Tilton’s Challenge to SEC Suit Denied by Appeals Court

06/02/16

[wsj-responsive-image P="//art.wsj.net/api/photos/31690525/smartcrop?height=499&width=749" J="//art.wsj.net/api/photos/31690525/smartcrop?height=639&width=959" M="//art.wsj.net/api/photos/31690525/smartcrop?height=853&width=1280" caption="New York financier Lynn Tilton speaks with her attorneys after her hearing at the U.S. District courthouse in New York, May 11, 2015. A lawyer for Tilton urged a U.S. judge on Monday to block the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from trying her before an administrative judge for defrauding investors.

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Digital Wallets: The Honor All Devices Rule

06/02/16

Every wondered how ApplePay works?  What the whole deal with Chip cards is?  Those contactless readers at stores?  If you're looking to nerd out on 21st century payment technology...and its legal and business implications, look no further.  I have a new paper out entitled Pandora’s Digital Box:  Digital Wallets and the Honor All Devices Rules.

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The Wisdom (Or Lack Thereof) of The DAO

06/01/16

The idea behind The DAO is to act as a decentralized investment fund that leverages the wisdom of crowds. But sometimes the crowd doesn't necessarily offer the wisest counsel.

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Current Approach to Short-Term Credit Doesn't Cut It

06/01/16

We need to adopt a more nuanced view of credit that considers not only the cost of credit, but also the cost of default and the cost of having no credit.

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Strong CFPB Rule Needed Even in Payday-Free States

06/01/16

While existing state laws show that payday lending curbs lead to positive outcomes, those laws will still benefit from a strong Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule.

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