Banking and Finance Law Commons^™

Confusion And Convergence In Consumer Payments: Is Coherence In Error Resolution Appropriate?, Anita Ramasastry

Articles

At present, there are no uniform rules governing retail payment systems in the United States. Checks, credit cards, debit cards, and new types of payment systems—such as stored-value cards and prepaid cards—are governed by different rules and provide consumers with varying protections. In addition, several phenomena may have confused consumers about the type of consumer protections they have when using different payment systems. First, new types of intermediaries have developed—such as online funds transmission and electronic bill presentment and payment—that piggyback on existing payment systems. Second, electronic check conversion systems may convert customer checks into a different payment system—electronic funds …

Unsafe At Any Price, Ronald J. Mann

Faculty Scholarship

Making Credit Safer is a fascinating collaboration between two scholars of very different bents. Elizabeth Warren's career rests oil decades of careful empirical research, integrated into trenchant policy analysis, and deeply informed by the cultural and social significance of debt. Oren Bar-Gill, by contrast, is a formally trained economist, who is at the start of his academic career, and has gained wide recognition for his successful application of theories of behavioral economics to the products that dominate the modern credit card industry.

Pick A Card, Any Card, Ronald J. Mann

Faculty Scholarship

At the heart of all serious thought about consumer financial products is the difficulty of understanding the mental processes by which consumers evaluate, compare, and use those products. Usury proposals from scholars and policy makers depend on explicit or implicit assumptions about how interest-rate caps will affect the mix of products available in the marketplace and the choices that consumers make among them. Legislators and lobbyists that decry a torrent of consumer bankruptcy filings rely explicitly on the claim that consumers abuse credit products. Proposals to outlaw products like payday loans assume that those who use the products are so …

Patterns Of Credit Card Use Among Low And Moderate Income Households, Ronald J. Mann

Faculty Scholarship

This chapter uses data from the Federal Reserve Board's Survey of Consumer Finances for 2004 (the "SCF") to examine the penetration of credit cards into LMI markets. The chapter has two purposes. First, I discuss the rise of the modern credit market, emphasizing the segmentation of product lines based on behavioral and financial characteristics of customer groups. Among other things, that trend involves the use of products aimed at LMI households that differ significantly from those aimed at middle-class households. Second, I describe the extent to which LMI households borrow on credit cards, the types of LMI households that borrow, …

Mutual Fund Advisory Fees: New Evidence And A Fair Fiduciary Duty Test, John P. Freeman, Stewart L. Brown, Steve Pomerantz

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Troubled House Of Cards: Examining How The Housing And Economic Recovery Act Of 2008 Fails To Resolve The Foreclosure Crisis, Chad Emerson

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Global Network Finance: Organizational Hedging In Times Of Uncertainty, Katharina Pistor

Faculty Scholarship

The global financial crisis that began in 2007 revealed a fundamental weakness in the global financial system: Extensive financial interdependence of financial relations unmatched by a governance regime of similar reach. As multinational banks sought to fortify their capital base in the wake of the unfolding crisis, Sovereign wealth Funds (SWFs) and the banks’ home governments have become mutual stakeholders in some of the largest financial intermediaries with global reach. From the multitude of individual transactions has emerged a network of equity ties that spans the globe. These ties bridge institutional practices and governance regimes that previously operated largely independently …

Disaster Basics: The Life Cycle Of A Disaster And The Role Of Conflict Resolution Professionals, Linda Baron

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

When things go wrong, we call it a problem and mediators may be called in to help parties affected by the problem work things out. When things go terribly wrong, we call it a disaster, and conflict resolution professionals can use their experience, abilities, and skills to help the individuals, families, businesses, communities, and public agencies in the aftermath.

Disaster Mediation: Lessons In Conflict Coordination And Collaboration, Mel Rubin

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

All of us have been affected by disasters, either directly or indirectly. Although natural and manmade disasters have occurred throughout history, the size and scale of future disasters will surely reach regional, national and international proportions. Indeed, there is now and forevermore a disaster industry, in which Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) professionals will certainly play an important role.

Policies To Expand Minority Entrepreneurship: Closing Comments, Michael S. Barr

Book Chapters

This essay is based on comments delivered at the Conference on on Entrepreneurship in Low- and Moderate-Income Communities, November 3-4, 2005. This has been a productive conversation. In my closing comments, I want to shift our focus somewhat, from entrepreneurship in low-income communities to minority entrepreneurship generally. I want to do so because many minority entrepreneurs are connected to or hire from low-income communities, and because minority entrepreneurs face critical barriers even when they attempt to create and grow firms outside of distressed communities. In this comment, I want to highlight key barriers and suggest five steps for Congress, the …

What Else Matters For Corporate Governance?: The Case Of Bank Monitoring, Joanna M. Shepherd, Frederick Tung, Albert H. Yoon

Faculty Scholarship

We address a crucial but underappreciated question: what else besides corporate law matters for corporate governance? We take the novel view that corporate governance must involve more than corporate law. Corporate scholars focus almost exclusively on corporate law mechanisms for controlling managerial agency costs. We contend, however, that contracting parties also attempt to control agency costs in their contracts with the firm. In particular, we hypothesize that banks, by monitoring firms in connection with their loans, enhance firm value for the benefit of shareholders.

We examine over one-thousand public firms for the period 1990-2004 to test the value of bank …

Do Patents Perform Like Property?, Michael J. Meurer, James Bessen

Faculty Scholarship

Do patents provide critical incentives to encourage investment in innovation? Or, instead, do patents impose legal risks and burdens on innovators that discourage innovation, as some critics now claim? This paper reviews empirical economic evidence on how well patents perform as a property system.

Get Sick, Get Out: The Medical Causes Of Home Mortgage Foreclosures, Christopher Robertson, Richard Egelhof, Michael Hoke

Faculty Scholarship

In recent years, there has been national alarm about the rising rate of home foreclosures, which now strike one in every 92 households in America and which contribute to even broader macroeconomic effects. The "standard account" of home foreclosure attributes this spike to loose lending practices, irresponsible borrowers, a flat real estate market, and rising interest rates. Based on our study of homeowners going through foreclosures in four states, we find that the standard account fails to represent the facts and thus makes a poor guide for policy. In contrast, we find that half of all foreclosures have medical causes, …

The Problems Of Securitizing Sub-Prime Loans, Tamar Frankel

Faculty Scholarship

In October 2007, the board of directors of Merrill-Lynch, Smith & Fenner, one of the largest if not the largest brokerage houses in the United States, accepted the request for early retirement of its Chief Executive Officer. The brokerage firm disclosed that it has lost over $8 billion on its investments in sub-prime mortgage loans.¹ Merrill Lynch was not the only financial giant to sustain enormous losses. The losses caused market liquidity to dry up. The U.S. government took steps to ease the pressure.² But the high leverage of the system is still unravelling. The effect of these …

Straddle Obligations Under Prepetition Contracts – Prepetition Claims, Postpetition Claims Or Administrative Expenses, Laura B. Bartell

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

From Debtors’ Prisons To Prisoner Debtors: Credit Counseling For The Incarcerated, Laura B. Bartell

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Challenges Facing Investment Disputes: Reconsidering Dispute Resolution In International Investment Agreements, Susan Franck

Contributions to Books

International investment and international investment agreements have experienced a particular level of growth in the past few decades. With that growth and the granting of affirmative dispute resolution rights to foreign investors, international investment conflict has become increasingly highlighted; and one particular methodology - namely investment treaty arbitration - has become particularly visible. Reliance on this single option for resolving conflict has a unique set of systemic implications. This chapter therefore takes a more systemic look at investment treaty conflict and, in an effort to provide an appropriate historical and doctrinal framework, approaches to dispute resolution broadly. It asks for …

Did Bankruptcy Reform Fail? An Empirical Study Of Consumer Debtors, Robert M. Lawless, Angela K. Littwin, Katherine M. Porter, John A. E. Pottow, Deborah K. Thorne, Elizabeth Warren

Articles

Before 2005, many people went broke and many filed for bankruptcy. After 2005, many people still go broke, but not so many file for bankruptcy. Why has the number of bankruptcies declined? Surely it is not the economy. All throughout the 2000s, families have been under increasing economic pressure. Median family incomes have declined, basic expenses have risen, and families are shouldering unprecedented debt loads. Defaults remain high for credit cards and car loans, while mortgage foreclosures have soared. By 2008, over half of all Americans reported that their incomes were falling behind their cost of living. These data all …

Regulating Payday Lenders In Canada: Drawing On American Lessons, Stephanie Ben-Ishai

Articles & Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Markets, Systemic Risk, And The Subprime Mortgage Crisis, Steven L. Schwarcz

Faculty Scholarship

The recent subprime mortgage meltdown is undermining financial market stability and has the potential to cause a true systemic breakdown, collapsing the world's financial systems like a row of dominoes. This essay uses the subprime crisis to demonstrate that existing protections against systemic risk, which focus on banks and largely ignore financial markets, are anachronistic and misguided. Because companies increasingly access financial markets without going through banks, an effective framework for containing systemic risk must focus on markets.

Third-Party Tax Administration: The Case Of Low- And Moderate-Income Households, Michael S. Barr, Jane K. Dokko

Articles

Using a unique household-level data set, this article investigates the taxfiling experiences and refund behavior of low- and moderate-income (LMI) households. We document households' tax-filing behavior, attitudes about the withholding system, use of tax refunds to consume and save, and the mechanisms by which households would prefer to receive their income. We also document the prevalence of the use of tax-preparation services and the receipt of tax refunds and refund-anticipation loans. Finally, we argue that there may be a role for tax administration to enable LMI households to make welfare-improving financial decisions.

Returning Rico To Racketeers: Corporations Cannot Constitute An Associated-In-Fact Enterprise Under 18 U.S.C. § 1961(4), Caroline N. Mitchell, Jordan Cunningham, Mark R. Lentz

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.

A Redeeming Interest In Religious Freedom: Are Islamic Mortgage Alternatives Clogs On The Equitable Right Of Redemption?, Scott Griswold

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.

A Proposal For Protecting Executive Communications With Corporate Counsel After Corporate Client Has Waived Its Attorney-Client Privilege , John W. Gergacz

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.

Executive Compensation: The New Executive Compensation Disclosure Rules Do Not Result In Complete Disclosure, Sean M. Donahue

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.

The Eighth Annual A.A. Sommer, Jr. Lecture On Corporate, Securities, And Financial Law, William Michael Treanor, Ben A. Indek, Jill E. Fisch, Paul S. Atkins

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.

Securities Regulation In Low-Tier Listing Venues: The Rise Of The Alternative Investment Market, Jose M. Mendoza

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.

An End To The Deadbeat Dad Dilemma? - Puncturing The Paradigm By Allowing A Deduction For Child Support Payments , Reginald Mombrun

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.

Developing An Antitrust Injury Requirement For Injunctive Relief That Reflects The Probability Of Anticompetitive Harm, Yavar Bathaee

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.

Evaluating The Mission: A Critical Review Of The History And Evolution Of The Sec Enforcement Program, Paul S. Atkins, Bradley J. Bondi

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.