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Articles 1 - 30 of 39
Full-Text Articles in Consumer Protection Law
The Roots Of Credit Inequality, Andrea Freeman
The Roots Of Credit Inequality, Andrea Freeman
Seattle University Law Review
Debt oppression began before the United States became a country. Settlers enslaved Africans and Indigenous people, treating them as property that they could buy and sell for their economic and personal benefit. When enslavement became illegal, new economic systems and laws that included sharecropping, Black Codes, and Jim Crow kept Black people in servitude. Laws that prohibited enslaved people from owning property or selling goods to white people evolved into restrictions on Black people’s occupations and market participation, both formal and informal. When Black entrepreneurs overcame these obstacles and built wealth within Black business enclaves, white people enforced their racist …
Predatory Fintech And The Politics Of Banking, Christopher K. Odinet
Predatory Fintech And The Politics Of Banking, Christopher K. Odinet
Faculty Scholarship
With American families living on the financial edge and seeking out high-cost loans even before COVID-19, the term financial technology or “fintech” has been used like an incantation aimed at remedying everything that’s wrong with America’s financial system. Scholars and supporters from both the public and private sector proclaim that innovations in financial technology will “bank the unbanked” and open new channels to affordable credit. This exuberance for all things tech in finance has led to a quiet yet aggressive deregulatory agenda, including, as of late, a federal assault via rulemaking on the ability of states to police the cost …
The Rise Of "Fringetech": Regulatory Risks In Earned-Wage Access, Nakita Q. Cuttino
The Rise Of "Fringetech": Regulatory Risks In Earned-Wage Access, Nakita Q. Cuttino
Northwestern University Law Review
By many accounts, the financial technology, or FinTech, sector appears to have developed an innovative solution to assist low-income workers with income shortfalls between standard paydays by displacing fringe financial service providers, namely payday lenders. Earned wage access programs facilitate early transfers of earned-but-unpaid wages to low- income workers through mobile platforms, algorithmic technology, and GPS tracking. To many, earned wage access programs represent a win-win for employees and employers. These programs are believed to be cheaper and safer alternatives to payday loans. Preliminary research also suggests these programs improve labor-retention rates for employers and help reduce financial distress for …
American Usury Law And The Military Lending Act, Paul Kantwill, Christopher L. Peterson
American Usury Law And The Military Lending Act, Paul Kantwill, Christopher L. Peterson
Utah Law Faculty Scholarship
In 2006 Congress adopted the Military Lending Act (“MLA”) to protect active duty military service members and their families from high-cost, predatory loans. The core provision of the statute is a usury limit capping interest rates at no more than 36 percent per annum. The United States Department of Defense finalized regulations implementing the MLA in 2007 and then later issued substantially revised regulations in 2015. The MLA is America’s first modern, national usury law that is applicable to all types of creditors and was adopted after the evolution of our national credit card market. After over a decade, the …
The Cfpb’S Endaround, Chris O'Brien
The Cfpb’S Endaround, Chris O'Brien
Catholic University Law Review
The financial crisis of 2008 led Congress to enact the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and establish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to better protect consumers. Although Dodd-Frank and the CFPB introduced sweeping changes to many areas of financial lending, automobile dealers and financers were expressly excluded from oversight by the CFPB. Despite this express limitation on the CFPB’s authority, the Bureau nonetheless expanded its definition of “larger participants” to encompass automobile dealers and financiers. This action has resulted in duplicative regulatory oversight and increased costs to consumers, which in turn, imposes additional burdens on those …
Consumer Bitcredit And Fintech Lending, Christopher K. Odinet
Consumer Bitcredit And Fintech Lending, Christopher K. Odinet
Faculty Scholarship
The digital economy is changing everything, including how we borrow money. In the wake of the 2008 crisis, banks pulled back in their lending and, as a result, many consumers and small businesses found themselves unable to access credit. A wave of online firms called fintech lenders have filled the space left vacant by traditional financial institutions. These platforms are fast making antiques out of many mainstream lending practices, such as long paper applications and face-to-face meetings. Instead, through underwriting by automation — utilizing big data (including social media data) and machine learning — loan processing that once took days …
Choosing Corporations Over Consumers: The Financial Choice Act Of 2017 And The Cfpb, Christopher L. Peterson
Choosing Corporations Over Consumers: The Financial Choice Act Of 2017 And The Cfpb, Christopher L. Peterson
Utah Law Faculty Scholarship
The Financial Choice Act of 2017 is appropriately named in at least one sense: its proposed restrictions on the authority of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reflect a choice by the House of Representatives to protect financial companies at the expense of consumers. This choice is borne out by the data. As this empirical review of CFPB enforcement cases demonstrates, nearly all of the relief provided to American consumers in CFPB enforcement cases arose where a bank, credit union, or other finance company deceived their customers about a material aspect of their product or service. Between 2012 and 2016, the …
Regulating Debt Collection, Christopher K. Odinet, Roederick C. White
Regulating Debt Collection, Christopher K. Odinet, Roederick C. White
Faculty Scholarship
Debt collection. It often starts as a late night call carrying threats of being thrown in prison, ruin at the workplace, and trouble for the family unless you pay up. While the law actually prohibits some of these tactics, most consumers do not know their legal rights, which leave much to be desired, or fail to exercise them when faced with the harassing practices of some debt collectors. Moreover, the debt collection industry as a whole — both massive and sophisticated — lacks the incentives to self-police or internally punish bad actors. In July 2016 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau …
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Law Enforcement: An Empirical Review, Christopher L. Peterson
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Law Enforcement: An Empirical Review, Christopher L. Peterson
Utah Law Faculty Scholarship
In the aftermath of the U.S. financial crisis, Congress created a new federal agency — the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) — with the goal of fashioning a more just and efficient American consumer finance market. The CFPB now serves as the U.S. Government’s primary regulator and civil law enforcement agency governing consumer lending, payment systems, debt collection, and other consumer financial services. In its first four years of enforcing federal consumer protection laws, the CFPB has announced over a hundred different law enforcement cases forcing banks and other financial companies to relinquish over $11 billion in customer refunds, forgiven …
Credit Discrimination Based On Gender: The Need To Expand The Rights Of A Spousal Guarantor Under The Equal Credit Opportunity Act, Allen Abraham
Credit Discrimination Based On Gender: The Need To Expand The Rights Of A Spousal Guarantor Under The Equal Credit Opportunity Act, Allen Abraham
Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law
This Note focuses on the definition of “applicant” as defined in the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and Regulation B. Specifically, this Note explores the expanded protections offered by the ECOA to spousal guarantors, after the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) expanded the definition of “applicant” by promulgating Regulation B. However, after a circuit split, where the Eighth Circuit, in Hawkins v. Community Bank of Raymore, held that a guarantor was not an “applicant” per the ECOA’s definition and the Sixth Circuit, in RL BB Acquisition, LLC v. Bridgemill Commons Development Group, LLC, followed Regulation B’s expansion of the definition of …
Buying Time In Spain: The Spanish Law Of Installment Sales, John M. Steadman
Buying Time In Spain: The Spanish Law Of Installment Sales, John M. Steadman
Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law
No abstract provided.
Tax Rebates And The Cycle Of Payday Borrowing, Paige Marta Skiba
Tax Rebates And The Cycle Of Payday Borrowing, Paige Marta Skiba
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
I examine whether receipt of a $300 tax rebate by payday borrowers affects their like- lihood of borrowing, loan size, or default behavior. Results from fixed-effects models show that the rebate decreases the probability of taking out a payday loan in the short run. These impacts are most apparent among credit-constrained, infrequent borrow- ers. Those who take out loans around the time of the rebate borrow amounts typical of their normal borrowing behavior but are more likely to default. Overall, however, the rebate's effects are small and short-lived, suggesting a muted response to this cash windfall in payday borrowing and …
Banking And The Social Contract, Mehrsa Baradaran
Banking And The Social Contract, Mehrsa Baradaran
Scholarly Works
This article asserts that there exists today and has always existed an interdependent relationship between banks and the state. I refer to this connection and its mutual benefits and responsibilities as a social contract. When Alexander Hamilton responded to President Washington’s inquiry about the advisability of a national bank, he wrote that “such a Bank is not a mere matter of private property, but a political machine of the greatest importance to the State.” This social contract has existed since the inception of banking in the United States and has been reinforced over time, but it has recently become weakened …
Regulation Goes Medieval, Andrew A. Schwartz
Regulation Goes Medieval, Andrew A. Schwartz
Publications
Section 301 of the 2009 federal Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act prohibits the issuance of consumer credit cards to young adults ages 18–20 unless the credit contract is cosigned by an older adult who accepts joint liability for the card, or else the young adult proves she has “independent means of repaying” her credit card obligations. This prohibition is at odds with a 50-year trend of extending the rights of adulthood to people ages 18–20. It also blocks an important source of credit for young entrepreneurs, who often use consumer credit to launch their enterprises.
Conceptions Of Borrowers And Lenders In The Canadian Payday Loan Regulatory Process: The Evidence From Manitoba And Nova Scotia, Freya Kodar
Dalhousie Law Journal
Commentators characterize thinking aboutpaydayloans as falling into two general perspectives. In one theory payday loans respond to market demand and are a sensible choice for a consumer with limited assets, credit, or other support when an unexpected financial need arises. The opposing theory holds that the loans are usurious and exploit vulnerable low-income borrowers. In 2007, amendments were passed exempting payday loans from the application of the criminal interest rate provisions of the Criminal Code if they were made by companies licensed by a province with a regulatory scheme. The author examines how federal and provincial lawmakers and administrative decision-makers …
Old Enough To Fight, Old Enough To Swipe: A Critique Of The Infancy Rule In The Federal Credit Card Act, Andrew A. Schwartz
Old Enough To Fight, Old Enough To Swipe: A Critique Of The Infancy Rule In The Federal Credit Card Act, Andrew A. Schwartz
Publications
In the 1960s and 1970s, American society came to the considered conclusion that if eighteen-year-olds can be drafted to fight and possibly die for their country, they should be treated as adults under the law. Thus, in 1971, the Twenty-Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which lowered the voting age to eighteen from twenty one, was proposed and ratified in just three months, making it the fastest amendment in American history. The minimum age for federal and state jury service was also lowered to eighteen from twenty one. And, with regard to contract law, every state passed legislation reducing …
Financial Literacy Or Financial Castigation?, John A. E. Pottow
Financial Literacy Or Financial Castigation?, John A. E. Pottow
Articles
This year, the Canadians- through their government-convened Task Force on Financial Literacy - have proudly produced, "Canadians and their Money: Building a Brighter Financial Future." Armed with 30 recommendations, its most dramatic innovation is to recommend the creation of a Financial Literacy Leader. I have been asked to provide an American perspective on this report specifically and the broader agenda of "financial literacy" more generally as a consumer welfare intervention. Let me start by acknowledging the critiques of the Canadian Task Force. For example, my Canadian colleague, Saul Schwartz, has already drafted a compelling analysis of the political economy behind …
Predatory Structured Finance, Christopher L. Peterson
Predatory Structured Finance, Christopher L. Peterson
ExpressO
Predatory lending is a real, pervasive, and destructive problem as demonstrated by record settlements, jury awards, media exposes, and a large body of empirical scholarship. Currently the national debate over predatory mortgage lending is shifting to the controversial question of who should bear liability for predatory lending practices. In today’s subprime mortgage market, originators and brokers quickly assign home loans through a complex and opaque series of transactions involving as many as a dozen different strategically organized companies. Loans are typically transferred into large pools, and then income from those loans is “structured” to appeal to different types of investors. …
The Impact Of Opt-In Privacy Rules On Retail Credit Markets: A Case Study Of Mbna, Fred H. Cate, Michael Staten
The Impact Of Opt-In Privacy Rules On Retail Credit Markets: A Case Study Of Mbna, Fred H. Cate, Michael Staten
Articles by Maurer Faculty
U.S. privacy laws are increasingly moving from a presumption that consumers must object to ("opt out" of) uses of personal data they wish to prohibit to a requirement that they must explicitly consent ("opt in") to uses they wish to permit. Despite the growing reliance on opt-in rules, there has been little empirical research on their costs. This Article examines the impact of opt-in on MBNA Corporation, a diversified, multinational financial institution. The authors demonstrate that opt-in would raise account acquisition costs and lower profits, reduce the supply of credit and raise credit card prices, generate more offers to uninterested …
The Search For More Fairness In The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, Elwin Griffith
The Search For More Fairness In The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, Elwin Griffith
University of Richmond Law Review
No abstract provided.
The Usury Trompe L'Oeil, James J. White
The Usury Trompe L'Oeil, James J. White
Articles
This Article demonstrates how the interaction of a federal statute passed in 1864,1 a case decided by the Supreme Court in 1978,2 and modem technology has legally debarred every state legislature from controlling consumer interest rates in its state-but not from passing laws that appear to do so-and has politically debarred the Congress from setting federal rates to replace the state rates. As a consequence, the elaborate usury laws on the books of most states are only a trompe l'oeil, a "visual deception... rendered in extremely fine detail ... ." The presence of these finely detailed laws gives the illusion …
Once Is Not Enough: Preserving Consumers' Rights To Bankruptcy Protection, Susan L. Dejarnatt
Once Is Not Enough: Preserving Consumers' Rights To Bankruptcy Protection, Susan L. Dejarnatt
Indiana Law Journal
No abstract provided.
Section 2-102 Of The West Virginia Consumer Credit And Protection Act And Assignee Liability: The Triangle Of Consumers, Dealers, And Lenders Has Come Full Circle, Dana F. Eddy
West Virginia Law Review
No abstract provided.
The Appropriate Role Of Security Interests In Consumer Transactions, William C. Whitford
The Appropriate Role Of Security Interests In Consumer Transactions, William C. Whitford
Cardozo Law Review
No abstract provided.
The Recent Erosion Of The Secured Creditor's Rights Through Cases, Rules And Statutory Changes In Bankruptcy Law, James J. White
The Recent Erosion Of The Secured Creditor's Rights Through Cases, Rules And Statutory Changes In Bankruptcy Law, James J. White
Articles
One can view the law of creditors' rights as a series of cyclesin which alternatively the rights of the creditor and then those of the debtor are in ascendancy. Looking back through Americanlegislative history, one sees both the state legislatures and the Congress intervening on behalf of debtors in a variety of ways onmany occasions. An early example of such intervention was the enactment, particularly in the Midwest and West, of generous exemption laws that removed a variety of property beyond the reach of general creditors. A second example is the enactment of usury laws, which continue to be a …
Comments On The Consumer Finance Industry's Proposals To Improve The Position Of Secured Creditors In Consumer Bankruptcy Cases, Joseph E. Ulrich
Comments On The Consumer Finance Industry's Proposals To Improve The Position Of Secured Creditors In Consumer Bankruptcy Cases, Joseph E. Ulrich
Washington and Lee Law Review
No abstract provided.
Judicial Erosion Of The Rescission Right Under Truth In Lending
Judicial Erosion Of The Rescission Right Under Truth In Lending
Washington and Lee Law Review
No abstract provided.
Truth And Consequences, John W. Edmonds, Iii, George W. Taylor, Jr.
Truth And Consequences, John W. Edmonds, Iii, George W. Taylor, Jr.
Washington and Lee Law Review
No abstract provided.
Consumer Law--The Supervised Loan In West Virginia, Jon David Levy
Consumer Law--The Supervised Loan In West Virginia, Jon David Levy
West Virginia Law Review
The supervised (small) loan is just one piece in the patchwork of transactions characterized as consumer credit. It is designed to increase the availability of credit for consumers in a form attractive to legitimate lenders who are permitted to issue loans with a low ceiling on the maximum principal amount, and a high ceiling on the permissible rate of interest. The other primary feature of the supervised loan, in trade off to its exemption from general usury requirements, is comprehensive regulation. As a result, supervised loan legislation is uniformly characterized by scrupulous licensing and oversight requirements. The one source perhaps …
Good Faith Reliance Upon Federal Reserve Board Staff Opinion Letters: The Circuits Converge, Michael Thomas Kelly
Good Faith Reliance Upon Federal Reserve Board Staff Opinion Letters: The Circuits Converge, Michael Thomas Kelly
Fordham Urban Law Journal
The Federal Reserve Board (FRB) is the central, single agency for issuing all regulations on credit disclosures. It administers the Truth in Lending Act pursuant to Title I of the Consumer Credit Protection Act. Congress intended the FRB to consolidate all disclosure requirements but the FRB did so in a confusing fashion. It utilizes three different methods of disseminating truth-in-lending information: (1) through the publication of Regulation Z, an administrative code, to prescribe disclosure rules; (2) through interpretations of the rules; and (3) through staff opinion letters. The confusion resulted from disagreements in the applicable law between the three methods. …