Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Recess at the CFPB?

01/25/13

As
has been widely
reported , the D.C. Circuit
today ruled
unconstitutional the
president's power to make recess appointments. This is a good thing.

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Usury Laws Are Dead. Long Live the New Usury Law. The CFPB's Ability to Repay Mortgage Rule

01/11/13

The CFPB has come out with its long awaited qualified
mortgage (QM) rulemaking under Title XIV of the Dodd-Frank Act.  The QM rulemaking is by far the most important
CFPB action to date and will play a crucial role in determining the shape of
the US housing finance market going forward. The QM rulemaking also rep

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CFPB's Anti-Abuse Authority: A Promising Development in Substantive Consumer Protection

11/21/12

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is doing something promising with its anti-abuse authority under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010.  It is going after credit industry exploitation of consumers, particularly when business models involve using confusing terms that disclosure cannot adequately address.  See my paper on this topic. So I was not surprised to see George Will attacking this development.   We can't have smart, effective consumer protec

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Bankruptcy and Politics: Junior Senator from Massachusetts Edition

11/11/12

Politics is not my strong suit -- this, ironically, from the faculty sponsor of both the Democratic and Republican student associations at Michigan Law.  (No, I am not confused; I was asked presumably because each group wanted a political independent, and I don't like to play favorites.)  So I have what may be a naive but is nonetheless a genuine question regarding Senator-Elect Warren's upcom

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MyConsumerTips.info

10/23/12
I have been working for a few years in developing and creating a consumer outreach website at MyConsumerTips.info.  The site is purely non-profit and has no sponsors or advertisers. It aims to simply provide consumers with “consumer tips” that change each day, independent summaries regarding debt-related and other consumer rights, quizzes and polls regarding such issues, and other consumer protection resources. It is user-friendly and interactive.
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Reverse Mortgages -- The Next Big Problem Area?

10/15/12

In October 2011, I testified to the U.S. Senate Banking Committee's Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection. In a nation of short memories, the hearing took place amid claims that we did not need new consumer financial regulation. Existing institutions could adequately take care of things. Thus, among other things, the hearing focused on what specific tasks the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) could undertake.

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Arbitration Agreements

09/16/12

Brian Wolfman has an interesting post about e-Bay's new arbitration agreement with a class action opt-out.  Curiously, e-Bay's arbitration agreement isn't mandatory, but it is opt-out with a limited opt-out period.  Brian's take is that this opt-out is consumer choice window-dressing:  while there is formally a consumer choice involved, functionally it is meaningless. I agree. 

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Levitin on the Board

09/14/12

Congratulations to Credit Slips's Adam Levitin who was just named to the Consumer Advisory Board for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

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Credit Card Data

08/15/12

The CFPB released a beta version of its complaint database on June 19th. Right now, one can only search credit card complaints, which the CFPB began taking on the first birthday of its creation, July 21, 2011. My takeaway is that this is major step forward for the disclosure of complaint data but that the "beta" in the website is well-deserved. You can see some neat graphics and and best of all you can download the raw data.

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