Yesterday, the Senate voted to proceed with the nomination of Richard Cordray to direct the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), then approved him later in the day on a 66-34 vote. The move has the potential to benefit everybody with a mortgage, credit card or private student loan. In other words: you.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Payday Loans Are Bad Enough Without Banks Getting Into the Act
Consumers who use online payday lenders may be taken advantage of twice: first, by the lenders’ triple-digit interest rates that flout state caps, then with fees tacked on by the borrowers’ own banks.
How to Help Stay-at-Home Spouses Get Credit Cards Without Risking Our Financial Institutions
A regulation requiring proof of personal income in credit card applications has justly been described as “anti-housewife”. The rules hurt the ability of nonworking spouses to access credit and build their own independent credit standing. There is a smart solution to the problem—but it’s not the one currently being proposed by the …
With Obama Win, Wall Street Cop Stays On the Beat
This week’s election was a cliffhanger for many people, but the stakes were higher than most for the director and staff of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The agency, which opened its doors in July 2011, was a …
Occupy Wall Street, One Year Later: Did It Make a Difference?
A year ago today, a group of people angry about economic inequality, corporate greed and financial injustice staged a protest in Lower Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park, pledging to “Occupy Wall Street.” There was no overarching agenda …
College ‘Shopping Sheet’ Designed to Help Students Compare Financial Aid, Overall Costs
Aiming to make the cost of college a little more clear—and easily comparable—the Obama Administration released a new guide on Tuesday to help students understand how much they will have to pay, how much debt they may have to take on, and how likely it is that they will be able to repay the debt.
How to Get the CFPB to Address Your Most Pressing Money Needs
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is testing a new website that it hopes will answer all your money questions in the near future. Here’s your chance to let them know what you need most.
How Service Contracts Rob You of Your Rights (and What the CFPB Is Doing About It)
While you’ve been pretending to read the fine print on everything from your cell phone contract to your Starbucks card, companies have been slipping in legalese that robs you of your rights. A little-understood but rapidly expanding practice called “mandatory arbitration” is replacing your right to sue a company in court — a right many …
Old ‘Nigerian Lottery’ Scam Gets a New Twist
Prepaid-debit-card providers like to make the argument that their products can be used just like bank accounts, but there’s one major way in which prepaid debit differs from bank-issued cards tied to an account or line of credit: …
Privacy? Here’s How Data Mining Might Actually Help Consumers
With so much concern over privacy in the digital world, it’s worth noting how the careful disclosure of consumer data might actually help. This is especially true in the area of personal finance, where the newly minted federal …
The CFPB Wants to Give You Better Overdraft Fee Protection
It’s hard to overstate how much bank customers hate overdraft fees, but we still shelled out nearly $30 billion on them last year. The Federal Reserve attempted to rein in the “gotcha” factor with new rules in 2010, but banks have exploited loopholes in them and increased the fees. Now, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is trying …
CFPB’s First Move with a Director in Place: Confront ‘Nonbanks’
One day after President Obama appointed Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over the objections of Senate Republicans, the bureau announced the launch of a new “nonbank supervision program.”