Under prior director Richard Cordray, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau earned a reputation as an extremely aggressive regulator. However, since acting director Mick Mulvaney took office more than four months ago, the agency has not brought a single enforcement action.
Mulvaney has said that, in general, the CFPB will only go after egregious cases of
The Supreme Court recently held that civil actions consolidated under Rule 42(a) retain their separate identities, so that a final decision in one action is immediately appealable by the losing party, even if other actions in the consolidated proceeding remain.
Consumer litigation often lends itself to consolidation under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 42 because
Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) recently introduced a resolution to overturn guidance promulgated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2013. The resolution seeks to invalidate the Bureau’s guidance under the Congressional Review Act, the same statute that permitted Congress to overturn the arbitration rule.
The guidance at issue is the CFPB’s highly
On June 9, 2017, under the leadership of its former director, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a modified civil investigative demand, or “CID,” containing the following Notification of Purpose:
The purpose of this investigation is to determine whether a [sic] student-loan servicers or other persons, in connection with
On February 12, the White House released its budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2018, a document that calls for numerous changes to the repayment and forgiveness of federal student loans taken out after July 1, 2019. While Congress, of course, retains responsibility for any appropriations legislation, this document’s wish-list reflects the apparent priorities of the
As summarized in the March 2018 issue of the American Bankruptcy Institute Journal, ABI’s Consumer Bankruptcy Committee has recently issued several recommendations and made several observations regarding the treatment of student loans under the Bankruptcy Code, codified in Title 11 of the United States Code.
First, the Committee intends to fashion a program
In the student loan market, servicers play a critical role. These entities maintain account records regarding borrowers, send periodic statements advising borrowers about amounts due and outstanding balances, receive payments from borrowers, allocate those payments among various loans and loan holders, answer borrowers’ questions, report to creditors and investors, and strive to prevent default by
The Republican Congress’ ongoing effort to overhaul the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, as embodied in the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act, may yet extend a helping hand to struggling student loan borrowers. On March 8, Sen. Richard (“Dick”) Durbin (D-Ill.), the Democratic Minority Whip, introduced an amendment to
The FTC has just issued its annual report, the Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book, aggregating data on the 2.68 million consumer complaints that it received in 2017. This number is down from a peak in consumer complaints during 2015 – 3.04 million complaints – and last year’s total of 2.98 million.
According to the FTC’s
On February 28, Mick Mulvaney, the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, delivered remarks at the winter meeting of the National Association of Attorneys General (“NAAG”) in which he outlined the CFPB’s strategic vision and enforcement priorities.
More Enforcement Leadership from State Attorneys General
In his comments, Mulvaney stressed that, moving forward, the