The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) announced yesterday that it has launched a public inquiry into how consumers and financial service companies are affected by arbitrations and mandatory arbitration clauses.  Arbitration is a form of binding, non-judicial dispute resolution. Unbeknownst to many consumers, however, many contracts for consumer financial services products and services contain a [...]

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) released a compliance bulletin yesterday announcing its commitment to cracking down on discriminatory lending.  The agency announced that it intends to use all available legal avenues, including disparate impact lawsuits, to pursue lenders whose practices discriminate against consumers.  The agency further announced that it will attempt to equip consumers [...]

Although the whistleblower “bounty” programs created by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act have gotten a good deal of attention from in the media, Dodd-Frank also created a very important set of whistleblower protections for employees of a wide range of businesses who oppose or report  violations of a number of federal [...]

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) issued a press release last week urging the public to blow the whistle on companies that engage in business practices that violate federal consumer-protection laws.  Rich Cordway, Assistant Director of Enforcement for the CFPB, explained that the CFPB was “providing whistleblowers and other knowledgeable sources with a direct line [...]

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) issued a press release Thursday in which  Raj Date, acting head of the Bureau, outlined new strategies for ensuring that mortgage servicers comply with consumer-protection laws.  In the release, Date described the mortgage market as having been “bogged down by widespread reports of pervasive and profound consumer protection problems,” with [...]