UniversityLast week, the CFPB muscled its way on campus, announcing that it will be looking at the impact of financial products marketed to students through their colleges and universities.  And by financial products, the CFPB made it clear that it was primarily referring to bundled school identification and debit cards, debit cards that are used to access scholarships and student loans, and school affiliated bank accounts, regardless of how they might be accessed. … Continue Reading

It is not surprising to me that Director (yes, he is still the Director until a court rules otherwise) Cordray has had difficulty finding a Deputy Director to fill Raj Date’s position. (Last Thursday, he appointed Steven Antonakes to serve temporarily in that position.) Mr. Date was a highly qualified individual with lots of gravitas.… Continue Reading

Whatever hope President Obama may have had that his nomination of Richard Cordray to serve a five-year term as Director of the CFPB vanished today when 43 Republican Senators joined in a letter to the President saying that they will oppose Mr. Cordray or any other nominee until major structural changes are made to the CFPB.… Continue Reading

On January 30, the United States filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court supporting the Respondents in American Express Company v. Italian Colors Restaurant, No. 12-133, an extremely important case involving the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA).  As described in more detail in our legal alert issued soon after the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, the Second Circuit had refused to enforce the class action waiver in American Express’ arbitration agreement with merchants who accept its cards on the basis that the waiver would effectively preclude the plaintiffs from prosecuting their federal antitrust claims. … Continue Reading

Predictably, political posturing in reaction to the D.C. Circuit’s Canning decision has already begun. According to media reports, South Dakota Senator Tim Johnson, a Democrat who heads the Senate Banking Committee, is calling upon the Senate to confirm Richard Cordray as CFPB Director without delay.  On the other side of the aisle, Nebraska Senator Mike Johanns, a Republican, on January 25 (the same day the Canning decision was issued) sent a letter to Mr.… Continue Reading

Director Cordray has announced the appointment of Steven Antonakes to serve as Acting CFPB Deputy Director pending the Bureau’s identification of a permanent replacement for departing Deputy Director Raj Date (who leaves the Bureau today).  Mr. Antonakes will also continue to serve as the CFPB’s Associate Director for Supervision, Enforcement, and Fair Lending.  … Continue Reading

The word on the street is that tomorrow Richard Cordray will appoint a new Deputy Director to replace Raj Date who has been serving in that capacity since Jan. 6 of 2012.

I hope Mr. Cordray uses the occasion to inform the public about the Bureau’s contingency plan in the event the D.C.… Continue Reading

While the CFPB has not yet issued a formal written statement about the impact of the D.C. Circuit’s recent opinion in Canning v. NLRB on the Bureau, the Wall Street Journal reported in its weekend edition that a CFPB spokesperson has said that the Bureau “is not a party in the case decided today and the court’s ruling has no direct effect on the Bureau.”… Continue Reading

Five-time “Jeopardy!” champion Richard Cordray is now facing a different kind of jeopardy.   The validity of his recess appointment on January 4, 2012 as CFPB Director is under a dark cloud as a result of last Friday’s  decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit holding that the President’s contemporaneous recess appointments of three National Labor Relations Board members violated the U.S.… Continue Reading

Among the flurry of mortgage-related final rules issued by the CFPB this month was a final rule to implement a Dodd-Frank amendment to the Equal Credit Opportunity Act that requires creditors to provide to a first lien mortgage applicant a copy of all written appraisals and valuations developed in connection with the application.… Continue Reading