The Senate Banking Committee announced that it would be holding a hearing on June 10, 2014 on the CFPB’s fifth Semi-Annual Report to Congress. CFPB Director Richard Cordray is the only witness scheduled to testify.

The hearing is expected to cover a range of topics, including the CFPB’s recent issues regarding discrimination in employee reviews, and the Senate’s recent hearings on student loans.… Continue Reading

Director Cordray spoke at the Boulder Summer Conference on Consumer Financial Decision Making this week, addressing student loan debt as a “pressing problem and a matter of grave importance to public policy in America.” Student loan debt is the second largest debt category after the mortgage market, and has reached $1.2 trillion.… Continue Reading

In remarks to the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank on May 9, Director Cordray outlined the past and future of the Bureau’s enforcement efforts. Director Cordray’s theme was to outline Bureau expectations in what he calls a “new era of accountability.”

Director Cordray highlighted the Bureau’s efforts to hold individual decision makers responsible for violations of consumer finance laws along with companies through the use of “time-honored principles of law” governing vicarious liability and piercing the corporate veil.… Continue Reading

As we previously reported, the CFPB is moving to the next phase of its “Know Before You Owe” initiative and held a forum on the mortgage closing process in Washington, DC on April 23, 2014.  Although the CFPB promoted the event as a discussion of the findings of their consumer survey on challenges of closing on a mortgage, the forum actually focused on shifting the mortgage industry toward an electronic mortgage closing process.… Continue Reading

Credit reporting was the first industry targeted by the CFPB using its “larger participant” supervisory authority. As demonstrated by the CFPB’s actions last week, credit reporting continues to be a high CFPB priority and is likely to remain as such for the foreseeable future.

On February 27, CFPB Director Richard Cordray delivered remarks before a meeting of the CFPB’s Consumer Advisory Board.… Continue Reading

On February 25, the Financial Literacy and Education Commission (FLEC) held a field hearing as part of America Saves Week to discuss financial education in the workplace, including how to deliver financial education to employees. During the field hearing, CFPB Director Richard Cordray, who also serves as the FLEC vice chair, delivered remarks encouraging employers to voluntarily implement financial education programs for their employees.… Continue Reading

Director Cordray mostly repeated previous comments in his remarks this week at the Mortgage Bankers Association Annual Convention in Washington, DC. 

The first portion of Director Cordray’s remarks followed his usual script, outlining the history of the financial collapse, Dodd-Frank, and the start of the CFPB.  From there, he explained how the CFPB took into account input from the industry in drafting and revising the new mortgage rules, focusing on “open, inclusive, transparent decision-making.”… Continue Reading

The Senate voted 71-29 in favor of cloture. That means that the Republicans will not use the threat of the filibuster to block a confirmation vote in the Senate of Richard Cordray’s nomination by President Obama to be Director of the CFPB. The confirmation vote is expected later today.… Continue Reading

We have been following very closely developments in NLRB v. Noel Canning, the case seeking Supreme Court review of the D.C. Circuit Court’s judgment invalidating President Obama’s January 4, 2012 appointment of several NLRB members. This case will likely determine the fate of Richard Cordray, who was appointed as Director of the CFPB on the same day and through the same assertion of “recess” appointment authority as the NLRB members in Noel Canning.… Continue Reading