News Topic: Consumer Finance

The Federal Reserve System has embarked on a project of exploring the possibility of faster retail payments in the United States.  A similar move has occurred with the UK Payments Council.  At the same time, the Electronic Payments Network is rolling out ... Read full article

In a recent case called Madden v. Marine Midland Funding , the Second Circuit ruled that a loan owned by a debt collector violated New York's usury statute.  The loan had been originally made by a national bank and was subsequently sold to the debt ... Read full article

I've been a skeptic for some time about claims that we have a student loan "crisis" in the United States. For individuals mired with student loan debt, it is very much a crisis, of course. ... Read full article

Apparently there is a business of rent-to-own hair weaves .  As a bald man, this is of particular interest.  Below is a description of some of the program: ... Read full article

Lately I have been teaching courses with names such as "Global and Economic Justice" and "History, Impacts and Regulation of Consumer Credit" instead of "Bankruptcy," "Secured Transactions" and "Chapter 11 ... Read full article

Clearly, the biggest surprise in consumer borrowing since the crash has been the explosive expansion of student loan debt. It has surpassed both auto lending and credit card lending. And, since it ties with Payday Lending and pre-crash sub-prime mortgage ... Read full article

Prior to the crash, only a very few macro-economists were studying consumer borrowing and fewer still were investigating inequality of income or of wealth as an important macro-economic factor. Work in macro-economics is done at academic institutions, the ... Read full article

I'm testifying before the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday at a hearing entitled " Preserving Consumer Choice and Financial Independence ." I'm the only non-industry witness (no surprise there). ... Read full article

The data breach stories just don't seem to stop. (And why would they?). The latest (I think) is about a massive and sophisticated multi-million dollar hacking of several banks .  If you read down through the story, one of the things the hackers did ... Read full article

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First some easy ones you all know: 1. The stock market will drop, perhaps precipitously, making now great time to rebalance retirement portfolios. 2. The price of gas will inch up and in the meantime, more states will add a little gas tax here and there ... Read full article

I was pleased to see today’s New York Times editorial entitled “ A Rate Cap for All Consumer Loans .”  It created a very public description of an industry indiscretion involving loaning money to the military at over 36%. ... Read full article

The revelation that 76 million JPMorgan Chase consumer accounts were compromised by hacking should be scaring the heck out of us. The Chase hacking is a r ed flag that hacking poses a real systemic risk to our banking system, and a national security risk ... Read full article

Apple Pay has been getting a lot of attention, and I hope to do a longer post on it, but for now let me highlight one possible issue that does not seem to have gotten any attention. I think Apple may have just become a regulated financial institution, ... Read full article

The latest consumer financial product to come under the regulatory microscope is subprime auto lending, which has seen a boom in the last few years.  The subprime auto market's boom underscores a real problem in consumer financial regulation: ... Read full article

I commend to Slips readers Alex Tabarrok's post over at Marginal Revolution entitled " Ferguson and the Modern Debtor’s Prison ."  ... Read full article

That's the name of a new book by Jake Halpern coming out in October . The New York Times has an excerpt on their site . If the excerpt is anything like the book, it's going to be gripping. ... Read full article

In a long story in today's edition, the New York Times is reporting  a bubble in often deceptive and abusive subprime auto lending on unaffordable terms, including very high rates of interest.  Although not quite the threat to the overall economy ... Read full article