Republican Congressman Jeb Hensarling, who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, has established a new policy for using his authority to issue subpoenas to the CFPB and other agency’s subject to the Committee’s oversight.  According to a letter from Mr. Hensarling to Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters, the Committee’s ranking member, an agency will have “two weeks to produce documents requested by the Committee and, if no responsive documents are received, a follow-up letter providing the agency with two additional weeks to comply will be sent.” … Continue Reading

The House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing tomorrow, March 3, entitled “The Semi-Annual Report of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection” at which Director Cordray is expected to testify.  The most recent report was issued in December 2014 and covered the period from April 1 through September 30, 2014. … Continue Reading

We recently wrote about two studies, one by Professor Ronald Mann and the other by Professor Jennifer Lewis Priestley, that cast serious doubt on the benefit to payday loan borrowers of an ability-to-repay requirement and limits on rollovers for payday loans, two elements that the CFPB is expected to include in its payday loan proposal.… Continue Reading

As he has done in prior years, Director Cordray spoke earlier this week to the National Association of Attorneys General.  His prepared remarks focused on the familiar theme of “the four Ds” that create obstacles for consumers in the financial services marketplace–deceptive marketing, debt traps, dead ends, and discrimination.

Director Cordray’s remarks included the following noteworthy comments on the “Four Ds”:

  • Deceptive marketing:  Director Cordray stated that “one of the most objectionable experiences we have had to date has been with law firms that purport to be helping people resolve their debts, but really are misusing their law license to defraud consumers.” 
… Continue Reading

The CFPB has issued a proposal to suspend for one year the Truth in Lending Act/
Regulation Z requirement for issuers of open-end credit cards to send their credit card agreements to the CFPB quarterly for posting in a public database on the CFPB’s website.  The suspension would not affect the TILA/Reg Z requirement for such issuers to post their credit card agreements on their own publicly available websites. … Continue Reading

On February 19, 2015, the CFPB released its credit report study, entitled “Consumer voices on credit reports and scores.”  After conducting focus groups with 308 consumers in four major metropolitan areas, the study concludes that while many consumers do access their credit scores and credit reports in various ways, confusion about both still persists.… Continue Reading

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. … Continue Reading

In his prepared remarks for an appearance last week at the Exchequer Club, CFPB Deputy Director Steven Antonakes discussed the CFPB’s risk-based approach to supervision.  (The Exchequer Club’s members include senior professionals from trade associations, federal regulatory agencies, law firms, congressional committees and national press.)

Mr. Antonakes commented on why “the traditional approach to supervision wouldn’t work at the Bureau.” … Continue Reading

Five prominent industry trade groups sent a letter to the CFPB yesterday seeking “to engage the CFPB in a constructive dialogue” on the study of indirect auto financing commissioned by the American Financial Services Association.  The study, which was conducted by Charles River Associates, found that the CFPB’s proxy methodology for measuring disparities in auto dealer reserve was “conceptually flawed in its application and subject to significant bias and estimation error.” … Continue Reading