All CFPB articles – Page 10
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Blog
A gut-punch for the CFPB: Court rules independent director is unconstitutional
A 2-1 ruling by a judicial panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit says that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as currently composed, is unconstitutional. Joe Mont has more.
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Blog
CFPB extends its reach to prepaid products
Joe Mont looks at new CFPB rules for prepaid financial products—including innovative online and mobile offerings from PayPal, Google, and Apple—that will require enhanced customer protections.
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Blog
CFPB updates exam procedures for Military Lending Act
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has announced the procedures its examiners will use when identifying consumer harm and risks related to the Military Lending Act. Joe Mont has more.
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Article
Wells Fargo CEO faces bipartisan furor
You know you are having a horrible week when complaints against your company unite Democrats and Republicans, but that’s exactly what Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf faced
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Article
Debate over CFPB’s arbitration rule intensifies in comment letters
The CFPB has received some 13,000 comments in a fierce debate over its proposed rule to limit the use of binding arbitration for resolving disputes associated with financial products. Joe Mont explores.
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BlogCFPB slams Wells Fargo with its largest ever fine
Is the Wells Fargo Wagon a-comin’ down an ethical street? The banking giant has been hit with the largest fine ever ($185M) by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in addition to terminating 5,300 employees and redoubling efforts to establish an ethical culture. Joe Mont reports.
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Article
CFPB winds down summer with flurry of rulemaking
Perhaps clearing its plate before November’s elections, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has cranked out a variety of rules, proposed rules, and amendments to rules in recent days. Joe Mont looks at what’s next on the agenda.
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ArticleOn its fifth anniversary, CFPB is as controversial as ever
The Consumer Financial Protection Agency may be the most polarizing government agency ever created. It’s also one of the most resilient, given its perseverance in the face of political and legal attacks. Its ultimate fate, despite its successes, may depend on two separate challenges to its constitutionality winding their way ...
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Blog
CFPB proposes slate of payday loan rules
A rule proposed on June 2 by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau includes its toughest attack yet on payday and title loans. Proposed requirements include a “full-payment” test requiring lenders to determine upfront that consumers can afford to repay what they borrow. Joe Mont has more.
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Article
Seeking to squash mandatory arbitration, CFPB proposal draws praise and venom
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is moving ahead with a proposed rule that will prohibit mandatory arbitration clauses. While proponents agree with the Bureau’s assertion that class-action lawsuits provide a more effective means for consumers challenging problematic practices, pro-business groups see the rule as a deathblow for financial services arbitration ...
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Blog
CFPB Tries to Assuage Fears Over New Mortgage Disclosures
Image: Mortgage servicers, lenders, and aggregators received welcomed news from CFPB Director Richard Cordray, who wrote in a letter to the Mortgage Bankers Association that technical errors will mean non-compliance with new "Know Before You Owe" mortgage disclosure rules. Because “there inevitably will be inadvertent errors in the early days,” ...
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Blog
CFPB Releases Latest Data From Complaint Database
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has concluded its most recent review of complaints filed with the agency. As of Dec. 1, 2015, the CFPB handled 770,100 complaints nationally and the report notes that, in a year-to-year comparison of data from September to November, complaints about prepaid products rose 215 percent. ...
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Article
CFPB Critics Focus Fight on Data Collection
Fights over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are often focused on critics’ perceived lack of accountability and transparency. In recent weeks, those battles have doubled down on concerns about how the agency collects, protects, and uses data on consumers and financial institutions. CFPB foes say it is collecting more information ...
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Blog
CFPB Considers Ban on Mandatory Arbitration Clauses
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is moving forward with new rules that would prohibit the mandatory arbitration clauses in contracts that banks, credit card companies, and others rely upon to prevent consumers from pursuing lawsuits. A variety of recommendations, published this week for public comment, are the results of a ...
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Blog
Legislation Could Limit CFPB's Purview of Auto Lending
Before breaking for August recess, the House Financial Services Committee delivered a potential blow to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s oversight of non-bank lenders. The bill, "Reforming CFPB Indirect Auto Financing Guidance Act of 2015," advanced with a bipartisan vote of 47-10, would repeal a CFPB bulletin from 2013 ...
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Article
Four Years On, Firms Still Struggle With CFPB Compliance
What have we learned in the four years the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been on the beat? For starters, it’s aggressive, returning $10 billion so far to consumers through enforcement actions. A solid understanding of the CFPB’s compliance program expectations remains elusive, and the mood among firms in the ...
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Blog
Appellate Court Allows Constitutional Challenge to CFPB
A small Texas bank scored a potentially big victory last week when a federal appeals court ruled that it has standing to challenge the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The decision, overturning a 2013 district court ruling, rejected a similar challenge to the Financial Stability Oversight Council and ...
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Article
CFPB’s ‘UDAAP’ Approach Is an Ambiguous Compliance Concern
Image: “Unfair and deceptive practices” have long been an enforcement area for consumer protection. Now the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is adding an A for “abusive”—and taking away clarity for financial firms about what its UDAAP standard exactly means. “There is no list of clear black-and-white rules, and that’s what ...
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Blog
CFPB Makes Narratives in Complaint Database Public
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has made the consumer narratives collected by its controversial complaint database publicly available. In March, the CFPB formalized its policy for accepting and disclosing the complaint narratives. Last week, more than 7,700 of those complaints—lodged against banks, credit card companies, and other consumer-dealing financial ...
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Article
ITT Complaint Shows Off-Balance-Sheet Woes Aren’t Off-Stage Yet
An SEC lawsuit against ITT Educational Services could shape up to be another textbook case of what goes wrong when companies try to deal with problematic accounting away from the eye of investors. The problem this time: off-balance sheet vehicles that masked ITT’s defaulting student loans. Where were the auditors? ...