Yesterday, President Biden gave remarks at a meeting of the White House Competition Council, which is composed of a number of administration officials, including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and CFPB Director Rohit Chopra.
The President’s speech focused on fees and prices in a number of areas – mobile phones, airlines, gas, prescription drugs, meat and poultry markets, and financial services. Specifically, he referenced an executive order that he released a year ago to promote competition by lowering prices. He encouraged all members of the council “to go even further than we’ve gone so far.”
He referenced “unnecessary hidden fees,” referring to them as “junk fees,” calling out overdraft fees, nonsufficient fund fees, and credit card late fees. “The council is going to come back to me,” President Biden said, “… with a plan for eliminating and reducing fees.”
The CFPB is already proposing new practices for collecting data from credit card companies to help consumers comparison-shop and reviewing allowable credit card late fees. It also issued a compliance bulletin on prepaid cards, launched an initiative on fees, and fined a prison financial services company.
The CFPB could take several different steps via either guidance or enforcement action in response to the president’s request to “go even further” on fees, including identifying certain fees as unfair, deceptive, or abusive. Of course, it could also issue a rulemaking, but CFPB Director Chopra has said that his preference is not to write a rule unless directed to do so by Congress. AFSA will continue to engage with Director Chopra and CFPB staff.
Yesterday, President Biden gave remarks at a meeting of the White House Competition Council, which is composed of a number of administration officials, including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and CFPB Director Rohit Chopra.
The President’s… Read the rest
The Better Business Bureau, International (BBB) has released a report on predatory payday and cash-advance lenders and debt collection scams. The report generally raises three issues. First, the BBB says its “scam tracker” identified … Read the rest
The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) is out with a new report that is a lot like its other reports on consumer credit and predatory lenders. But this time, there’s a twist.
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This week, CEOs from some of the largest U.S. banks provided testimony before the House Financial Services and Senate Banking Committees regarding several issues, including a proposal from Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) to expand the Military… Read the rest
Join us on October 6, 2022 at 1:00 p.m. ET for How to Delight Your Dealer and Fund Indirect Loans Faster, presented by Lightico.
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The Rule designates a variety of … Read the rest
The AFSA Fixed Income Investor Summit returns virtually for 2022.
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Join the AFSA Extra Credit Podcast and the Federal Government Affairs team in a policy discussion and a look at the mid-term elections.
Michael Grimes walks through the legislation Congress must pass before heading out for the October recess,… Read the rest
