The CFPB has announced that on Tuesday, March 10, 2015, it will hold a field hearing in Newark, N.J. on arbitration. The hearing will feature remarks from Director Cordray, as well as testimony from consumer groups, industry representatives, and members of the public.

Our expectation that the CFPB would issue its arbitration study in early 2015 coupled with the agency’s history of using field hearings as the venue for announcing new developments makes it seem highly likely that the field hearing will coincide with the CFPB’s release of the arbitration study.  The CFPB is conducting the study under Section 1028 of Dodd-Frank.  In April 2012, it published a request for information about the scope, methodology and data sources for the study.  In December 2013, it published preliminary study results.