Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Evictions in Violation of CDC Moratorium May Violate Fair Debt Collection Practices Act

04/19/21

The CFPB today released an important interim final rule that puts some real teeth behind the CDC's COVID eviction moratorium.

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The Kraninger Discount

01/05/21

The CFPB has been chugging out enforcement actions and settlements at a fairly fast clip the last several months. Part of that might be businesses deciding to settle because they think they're going to get a better deal with Director Kraninger than under any Director appointed by President Biden. And here's the thing:  they might well be right because there is a clearly observable "Kraninger Discount" in CFPB enforcement statistics. Director Kraninger has suspended nearly 18% of civil monetary penalties and 11% of consumer redress.

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CFPB Issues Factsheet On TRID Title Insurance Disclosures And Updates TRID FAQ

07/01/20

On June 9 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published a Factsheet on how to disclose title insurance on the Loan Estimate and Closing Disclosure, including when a negative owner’s title insurance cost disclosure is appropriate, and updated the TRID FAQs to include guidance on the total of payments disclosure, using the optional signature line on the Loan Estimate and Closing Disclosure, and the requirement to include seller information on the consumer’s disclosures if providing separate Closing Disclosures.  This blog discusses the Factsheet, and sets forth the four questions

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Seila Law v CFPB: Winners and Losers

06/29/20

The Supreme Court's long-awaited decision about the CFPB's constitutionality is out. It's a tricky opinion to parse politically. The Court, in a 5-4 partisan decision, held that the CFPB's structure violates the separation of powers because of the for-cause only removal provision for the CFPB Director in conjunction with the Bureau's other features. Accordingly, the Court found that the Director must be removable at will. Here's my attempt to lay out the winners and losers.

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The Brown M&M Theory of Telltale Minor Regulatory Violations or What's Wrong with "Earn a savings rate 5X the national average"?

05/21/20

A CapitalOne savings account ad has got me thinking about whether Van Halen has anything to teach regulators. Van Halen is famous for its use of a contract that requires provision of M&Ms for the band, but expressly prohibits provision of any brown M&Ms.

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Hope for helping the prospective payday loan customer

12/17/19
Short term (payday) loans and high interest consumer installment loans
continue to deplete low income households of micro dollars and their
communities of macro dollars. Although the CFPB seems intent on supporting
the depletions, a good number of states have provided some relief. 
Even in states without interest rate limitations
there are a couple of ideas that can help.

Chris Peterson and Nathalie Martin have provided legal support

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Coercive "Consent" to Paperless Statements

11/12/19

If you've logged on to any sort of on-line financial account in the past few years, there's a very good chance that you've been asked to consent to receive your periodic statements electronically, rather than on paper. Financial institutions often pitch this to consumers as a matter of being eco-friendly (less paper, less transportation) or of convenience (for what Millennial wants to deal with paper other than hipsters with their Moleskines).

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Playing with Fire: The CFPB's Proposed Repeal of the "GSE Patch"

07/25/19
CFPB today put out an advance notice of proposed rulemaking to amend the Qualified Mortgage (QM) Rule by letting the "GSE Patch" expire.  What the Bureau is proposing is truly dangerous.  While I haven’t liked some of the Bureau's other proposed rules (including under the Cordray Directorship), none of them were an all-out ideological gamble with the economy. This one, in contrast, is really playing with fire.
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What Is "Credit"? AfterPay, Earnin', and ISAs

07/16/19
A major issue in consumer finance regulation in mid-20th century was what counted as “credit” and was therefore subject to state usury laws and (after 1968) to the federal Truth in Lending Act. Many states had a time-price differential doctrine that held that when a retailer sold goods for future payment, the differential between the price of a cash sale and that of credit sale was not interest for usury law purposes.
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The Meaning of "Abusive" in the UDAAP Triad

06/19/19

On June 25, the CFPB will be holding a symposium on the meaning of "abusive" in the Consumer Financial Protection Act.  "Abusive" is an expansion of the traditional FTC Act couplet of "unfair or deceptive" acts and practices (UDAP) to a triad of "unfair, deceptive, or abusive" acts and practices (UDAAP).

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