CreditSlips

CFPB Arbitration Rulemaking--and Potential FSOC Veto

07/11/17

Today the CFPB finalized the most important rulemaking it has undertaken to date.  This rulemaking substantially restricts consumer financial service providers' ability to prevent consumer class actions by forcing consumers into individual arbitrations. I believe this is by far the most important rulemaking undertaken by the CFPB because it affects practices across the consumer finance space (other than mortgages, where arbitration clauses are already prohibited by statute). 

[more]

Dodd-Frank's "Abusive" Standard: The Dog that Didn't Bark

06/21/17

The Trump Treasury Department's Dodd-Frank Act report spends more pages on the CFPB (including mortgage regulation) than on any other issue.  There's a whole bunch of blog posts that one could write about the Treasury report, but I want to limit myself here to one item that has long been on the GOP/industry complaint list about the CFPB:  that its power to proscribe "abusive" acts and practices is a problem because the term "abusive" is novel and undefined and that this creates uncertainty that is chilling economic growth.  Total hooey.

[more]

New HMDA Regs Require Banks to Collect Lots of Data...That They Already Have

06/15/17

The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act  of 1975 is a key piece of fair lending legislation.  It requires mortgage lenders to report data on loan applications and loans funded that enables both government and private groups to monitor lending patterns for violations of the Fair Housing Act and Equal Credit Opportunity Act (as well as state fair lending laws).

[more]

Wells Fargo Fake Accounts and Arbitration

06/14/17

Jeff Sovern has an excellent new article about arbitration clauses and class action waivers that uses the Wells Fargo fake account scandal as a test case.

[more]

Senate Banking Committee Testimony

06/07/17

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 the problem is not one of economic growth, but economic distribution.  While the US economy has grown by 9% in real terms since Dodd-Frank, real median income has fallen by 0.6%.  That's pretty grim.  The gains have all gone to the top 10% and particularly the top 1%.  

[more]

The Chimerical Medicare Bar on Bankruptcy Jurisdiction

05/31/17

Statutory interpretation enthusiasts: prepare to nerd out on an issue on which the Court has a cert petition pending.  The question involves the federal jurisdictional bar to Medicare challenges.  Let’s start with the text:

[more]