Normally we say that a law is as strong as its enforcement. On February 7, however, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau raised questions about the enduring strength of the consumer financial laws in its third Request for Information under Acting ... Read full article
In a recent oral argument before the U.S. Supreme Court, conservatives urged the Court to outlaw the use of administrative law judges (ALJs) in agency enforcement actions. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is paying notice. On January 31, 2018, ... Read full article
For those of you writing on student loans, you may be interested in a new call for papers for a conference I am working to organize. On November 30, 2018, the Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy, Boston College Law School, and the National Consumer ... Read full article
While Acting Director Mick Mulvaney is apparently on a tear to defang the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, some of his actions have flown under the radar. In this and future guest blog posts, I will shine light on one key initiative that largely has ... Read full article
The Eviction Lab , a project led by sociologist Matthew Desmond (author of Evicted ), have performed the invaluable and impressive task of gathering landlord-tenant eviction records from every county in the nation for the past 16 years. ... Read full article
As if the power to garnish wages without going to court, seize federal income tax refunds and charge 25% collection fees weren't enough, debt collectors have now persuaded the Education Department to free them from state consumer protection laws when ... Read full article
The CFPB is out with its Strategic Plan for FY 2018-2022 , also known (without any apparent irony) as The Five Year Plan. Lots to chew on in this doozy, starting with this: ... Read full article
Twelve senators have just written ... Read full article
I just had the pleasure of reading Duke Law Professor Sara Sternberg Greene's paper The Bootstrap Trap . I highly recommend it for anyone who is interested in the intersection of consumer credit and poverty law. ... Read full article
A couple of weeks ago there appeared a remarkable memo written by Mick Mulvaney (who claims to be the Acting Director of the CFPB) to the CFPB staff. ... Read full article
This Tuesday I'm going to be testifying about "fintechs" before the House Financial Services Committee's Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit. My written testimony on this impossibly broad topic is here . ... Read full article
Although technically ... Read full article
I have a more refined piece on the problems with the Madden fix bills in the American Banker . See here for my previous thoughts. ... Read full article
Guess who’s sponsoring legislation to facilitate predatory lending? It’s not just the usual suspects from the GOP, but it looks like a number of centrist “New Democrats” are signing up to help predatory financial institutions evade consumer protections. ... Read full article
Time for a CFPB politics update: FSOC veto, Congressional Review Act override of the arbitration rulemaking, Director succession line, and contempt of Congress all discussed below the break. What happened to that FSOC Veto Threat? ... Read full article
I'm testifying before the Senate Banking Committee this week about "Fostering Economic Growth: The Role of Financial Institutions in Local Communities". It's the undercard for the Comey hearing. The big point I'm making are that ... Read full article
As the subprime foreclosure crisis grinds down slowly (there are still roughly 3 million pre-crisis subprime mortgages outstanding, many of them delinquent), and the HAMP program sunsets, the time has come to appraise the total damage done. ... Read full article
Four core federal consumer financial laws—the Truth in Lending Act (and Reg Z ), the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (and Reg E) , the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (and Reg X ) and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (and ... Read full article
