Prepared remarks delivered by Richard Cordray at the CFPB’s field hearing on payday lending today in Birmingham, Alabama identify some of the initial issues on which the CFPB will likely be focusing. Mr. Cordray indicated that the CFPB plans to “dig deep” on the topic of “repeated long-term use of payday loans” and described a situation reported by a consumer where “not enough is left to pay other bills” because “the payday lender takes the money directly from the consumer’s checking account.”… Continue Reading

The CFPB has released an updated version of its Company Portal Manual that describes the operation of the portal through which companies can view and respond to consumer complaints submitted through the CFPB’s complaint system (which the CFPB plans to expand beyond complaints about credit cards and mortgages to include complaints about other products such as deposit accounts.)… Continue Reading

The CFPB has issued an agenda and list of speakers for its field hearing on payday lending to be held tomorrow in Birmingham, Alabama. The hearing has been moved to a different location from the one initially announced because attendance is now anticipated to be larger than previously expected.… Continue Reading

Since this is my first post to the CFPB Monitor, I would like to begin with a few words of introduction. My name is John Socknat and I am one of the practice leaders of Ballard Spahr’s new Mortgage Banking Group. The Group’s attorneys have decades of experience in the mortgage industry—advising clients, handling transactions and due diligence, defending enforcement actions and providing a full range of legal services.… Continue Reading

Forbes.com has posted a Q&A-style interview with me headlined Arbitration Is Here to Stay and One Lawyer Says That Is Good for Consumers. In it, I discuss the U.S. Supreme Court’s major decision this week in CompuCredit Corp. v. Greenwood and its importance when read together with last year’s decision in ATT v.… Continue Reading

“The convening of periodic pro forma sessions in which no business is to be conducted does not have the legal effect of interrupting an intrasession recess otherwise long enough to qualify as a ‘Recess of the Senate’ under the Recess Appointments Clause.  In this context, the President therefore has discretion to conclude that the Senate is unavailable to perform its advise-and-consent function and to exercise his power to make recess appointments.” … Continue Reading

The official launch of the CFPB’s nonbank supervision program was the subject of a blog post by Peggy Twohig, the CFPB’s Associate Director for Nonbank Supervision, and Steve Antonakes, Associate Director for Large Bank Supervision. While much of the post rehashes comments made by Richard Cordray following his recess appointment as Director, a few items strike us as noteworthy.… Continue Reading

Lost in all the sturm and drang accompanying the President’s recess appointment of Richard Cordray as Director of the CFPB is the fact that one of Director Cordray’s first official acts was to appoint Raj Date as Deputy Director. Why is that important? Assuming that Cordray’s appointment is not invalidated by a court, he will serve until the end of this session of Congress.… Continue Reading