CFPB, Federal Agencies, State Agencies, and Attorneys General
The CFPB has released its Spring 2016 rulemaking agenda. The agenda sets the following timetables for key rulemaking initiatives:
Arbitration. The Spring 2016 agenda does not reflect the CFPB’s release of its proposed arbitration rule on May 5, 2016, stating only that the CFPB “is preparing to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking this spring.” … Continue Reading
A new blog post by Gary Stein, CFPB Deposits Market Program Manager, suggests four ways consumers can avoid overdraft and NSF fees. The post appears to have been prompted by the release of 2015 data by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council.
The blog post provides various statistics on consumer overdraft and NSF fee revenues of the banks that, beginning in 2015, were required to break out overdraft and NSF fee revenue on their call reports. … Continue Reading
In conjunction with yesterday’s meeting of the CFPB’s Consumer Advisory Board, which included a session on the CFPB’s strategic outlook, the CFPB issued its “near-term priority goals where we hope to make substantial progress over the next two years.”
The CFPB’s policy priorities over the next two years involve the following nine areas, which are listed alphabetically: arbitration, consumer reporting, debt collection, demand-side consumer behavior, household balance sheets, mortgages, open-use credit, small business lending, and student lending. … Continue Reading
As anticipated, in conjunction with its field hearing today, the CFPB announced several steps it has taken to improve consumer access to checking accounts. These steps consist of a sending a letter to the 25 largest retail banks encouraging them to offer and market “lower-risk” deposit accounts “to help consumers avoid overdrafts,” issuing a bulletin “warning banks and credit unions that failure to meet accuracy obligations when they report negative account histories to credit reporting companies could result in Bureau action,” and releasing new resources to assist consumers in opening and managing check accounts.… Continue Reading
The CFPB has published a notice indicating that it is seeking approval from the Office of Management and Budget to conduct “a national web survey of 8,000 individuals as part of its study of ATM/debit card overdraft disclosure forms.”
The CFPB states in the notice that the survey “will explore consumer comprehension and decision-making in response to revised overdraft disclosures.” … Continue Reading
The Texas Bankers Association (TBA) announced on its website that it has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request with the CFPB to obtain all documentation the CFPB requested from bank software processors on the overdraft activity of their bank customers.
The FOIA request relates to orders issued by the CFPB in November 2014 to financial services core processors that required the processors to provide information and data about the overdraft services they provide for depository institutions. … Continue Reading
Just in time for the holiday weekend, the CFPB released its Spring 2015 rulemaking agenda last Friday. The agenda sets the following timetables:
Prepaid financial products. In November 2014, the CFPB issued a proposed rule for prepaid financial products, including general-purpose reloadable prepaid cards and certain digital and mobile wallets. The agenda indicates that the CFPB expects to issue a final rule in January 2016.… Continue Reading
In its latest report evaluating the checking account practices of the nation’s largest banks, the Pew Charitable Trusts continues to press the CFPB to write new overdraft and other rules for checking accounts.
Pew’s new report, the third report in a series, examines the practices of 45 of the nation’s 50 largest banks by deposit volume and assesses trends among the 32 banks that have been reviewed in all three studies. … Continue Reading
The CFPB announced yesterday that it had reached a settlement with Regions Bank regarding claims that the bank unlawfully charged overdraft fees to customers who had not opted-in for overdraft coverage. The matter is the CFPB’s first enforcement action under the Regulation E rule that prohibits depository institutions from charging overdraft fees on ATM and one-time debit card transactions unless a consumer has affirmatively opted in. … Continue Reading
Based on the CFPB’s Fall 2014 rulemaking agenda, proposed rules dealing with payday loans/deposit advance products, overdrafts, and debt collection are still months away.
The CFPB’s timetables for “prerule activities” are February 2015 for payday loans/deposit advance products, July 2015 for overdrafts, and April 2015 for debt collection. The CFPB’s Spring 2014 agenda had given timetables for “prerule activities” of September 2014 for payday loans and deposit advance products, February 2015 for overdrafts, and December 2014 for debt collection.… Continue Reading
