The CFPB staff presented an informational webinar on Tuesday, March 1, 2016 to address several issues with the TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure (TRID) rule in connection with construction-to-permanent loans. These are loans that have a single closing and include a construction phase and a permanent phase. The presentation on construction lending follows a rather lackluster “fact sheet” covering the same topic on which we have previously written.… Continue Reading

The CFPB has issued its February 2016 complaint report which highlights complaints about prepaid cards and complaints from consumers in Texas and the Houston metro area.  The CFPB began taking complaints about prepaid cards in July 2014.

General findings include the following:

  • As of February 1, 2016, the CFPB handled approximately 811,700 complaints nationally, including approximately 21,800 complaints in January 2016. 
… Continue Reading

A new blog post by Gary Stein, CFPB Deposits Market Program Manager, suggests four ways consumers can avoid overdraft and NSF fees.  The post appears to have been prompted by the release of 2015 data by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council.

The blog post provides various statistics on consumer overdraft and NSF fee revenues of the banks that, beginning in 2015, were required to break out overdraft and NSF fee revenue on their call reports. … Continue Reading

In conjunction with yesterday’s meeting of the CFPB’s Consumer Advisory Board, which included a session on the CFPB’s strategic outlook, the CFPB issued its “near-term priority goals where we hope to make substantial progress over the next two years.”

The CFPB’s policy priorities over the next two years involve the following nine areas, which are listed alphabetically:  arbitration, consumer reporting, debt collection, demand-side consumer behavior, household balance sheets, mortgages, open-use credit, small business lending, and student lending. … Continue Reading

Public Citizen, Inc. has sent a petition to the Department of Education requesting the Department to adopt a rule that requires schools to agree, as a condition of receiving Title IV assistance under the Higher Education Act (HEA), not to include pre-dispute arbitration agreements in enrollment or other agreements with students.… Continue Reading

A new white paper issued by ACA International takes aim at the use of CFPB complaint data by The Alliance for a Just Society in a report titled “Unfair, Deceptive, and Abusive: Debt Collectors Profit from Aggressive Tactics.”

The Alliance’s report concluded that consumer complaints filed with the CFPB “suggest that unfair, deceptive and abusive tactics are prevalent in the debt collection industry.” … Continue Reading

In remarks earlier this week to the National Credit Union Association, Director Cordray discussed  the proposals the CFPB is considering for small dollar loans.  In March 2015, in anticipation of convening a SBREFA panel, the CFPB issued an outline of the proposals it was considering for payday (and other small-dollar, high-rate) loans (“Covered Loans”). … Continue Reading

The 21st Annual Consumer Financial Services Institute, sponsored by the Practicing Law Institute, will take place on April 4-5, 2016 in New York City (and by live webcast and groupcast in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Mechanicsburg, PA) and on May 12-13, 2016 in Chicago.

As I have done for the past 20 years, I will be co-chairing the event.… Continue Reading

As we previously addressed, the CFPB issued a final rule to expand the definition of “rural areas” under Regulation Z with regard to the authority of small creditors to make certain qualified mortgage loans under the ability to repay rule and avoid the escrow account requirement for certain higher priced mortgage loans.… Continue Reading

The FTC has sent a letter to the CFPB summarizing the FTC’s debt collection activities in 2015.  The letter is intended to provide the CFPB with information for its annual report to Congress on the federal government’s FDCPA activities.

The letter includes a discussion of the FTC’s collaboration with the CFPB on two amicus briefs in cases involving FDCPA issues.  … Continue Reading