Recent news reports indicate that the CFPB has placed advertisements to recruit investigators and said that the investigators’ activities are intended to inform the CFPB’s enforcement division about consumer experiences with different financial products and services. 

Those reports lead us to speculate that the CFPB may be planning to use “mystery shoppers.”  … Continue Reading

The CFPB has released its proposed mortgage servicing rules.  The proposals consist of a 250-page Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (Regulation X) rule and a 178-page Truth in Lending Act (Regulation Z) rule.  Comments on the proposals will be due by October 9, 2012.  

While the proposals’ page count may seem modest compared to the CFPB’s nearly 1,100 page proposal integrating RESPA/TILA disclosures, the servicing proposals are untypically single-spaced rather than double-spaced.  … Continue Reading

When CFPB Director Cordray recently testified before Congress, he heard a great deal about the concerns small businesses have about the costs of complying with new CFPB rules.  In a nod to those concerns, the final supplementary remittance transfer rule issued by the CFPB this week contains an exemption for institutions that conduct 100 or fewer remittance transfers per year.  … Continue Reading

Although two major CFPB mortgage proposals were released on July 9, one of those proposals is not scheduled to be published in the Federal Register until August 15 and the other not until August 23. 

The proposal scheduled for publication on August 15 is the one that would broaden the scope of mortgages that would be viewed as “high cost” and therefore subject to special disclosure requirements under Regulation Z (TILA).  … Continue Reading

On Friday, August 3, I had the pleasure of speaking on a panel at the ABA Annual Meeting with Meredith Fuchs, General Counsel of the CFPB, and Michael Gordon, Senior Counselor to the Director of the CFPB.  Also on the panel were Mark Metz from Bank of America, Jean Noonan from Hudson Cook, and Reginald Brown from Wilmer Hale, who did a great job moderating.… Continue Reading

David Vladeck, the Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the Federal Trade Commission, spoke at a program entitled “Applying Long-Standing FTC Standards to New Technology” held this past Friday at the American Bar Association Annual Meeting in Chicago.

The moderator of the program was Joel Winston, the former Associate Director of the FTC’s Division of Financial Practices who is now in private practice.… Continue Reading

This past Friday, Rachel Rodman, a lawyer at the CFPB, described the CFPB’s new amicus brief policy during a presentation she made at the ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago.  

During the Q&A segment, I urged the Bureau to do two additional things which might create more transparency and help to allay industry suspicion that the CFPB will always align itself against the industry.… Continue Reading

In a post on its blog, the CFPB writes that it’s looking for suggestions for cases in which the CFPB should consider filing amicus briefs. The post describes the six amicus briefs filed so far by the CFPB, four of which were in Truth in Lending cases and two of which were in Fair Debt Collection Practices Act cases. … Continue Reading

Stephen Shinn, a staff lawyer at the CFPB, spoke Saturday morning at the ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago about the status of the Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding general purpose reloadable prepaid cards.

He reported that the Bureau received 230 comment letters. He indicated that if the Bureau decides to issue a  proposed rule, that won’t occur until after the Bureau finalizes all of the regulations it is required to issue under Dodd-Frank.… Continue Reading

On August 1, the House Committee on Small Business held a hearing which it titled “Know Before You Regulate: The Impact of CFPB Regulations on Small Business.”  A major focus of the hearing was the CFPB’s compliance with the requirement in the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (SBREFA) for a small business panel to be convened before issuing regulations that the CFPB director expects to have a significant impact on a substantial number of small business entities. … Continue Reading