WASHINGTON UPDATE
Defense rules limit interest rates
to 36%, prohibit arbitration, and
provide strong private remedies for
all non-purchase money, closed
end credit offered to the country’s
3 million servicemembers and their
dependents, as described in this article.
FROM THE INTEREST GROUPS
The Urban Institute, in a study funded by
the CFPB, tested whether simple “rules
of thumb,” even if they’re not as detailed
as other forms of financial education,
might help people improve their
financial decisionmaking. The Institute
concludes: “financial decisions can be
complex, and the wrong choices can
lead to long-term financial strain. This
complexity makes financial education
difficult to deliver. Many studies have
found that financial literacy classes
in high schools, community colleges,
and adult education spaces don’t do
much to improve financial outcomes
for participants. More intense one-onone methods of financial education
and behavior change, such as
counseling and coaching, have shown
promise, but it’s difficult to get people
to participate in these time-intensive
programs, and they can be expensive
to administer. It turns out simple rules
of thumb can help at a very low cost.”
September 23, 2016
Issue two of our weekly update,
designed to keep NACBA members
abreast of any significant and relevant
activity on the part of Congress,
regulatory agencies and interest
groups/think tanks over the week
ON THE HILL This week’s anticipated
vote on the continuing resolution
(CR) to fund the government past
the September 30th expiration of the
current fiscal year funding did not
happen. However, as of the Thursday,
negotiators are said to be just a couple
of sticking points (offsets for Zika
funding and disaster money for floodravaged areas of the county) away from
a vote. Given the delays, both Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (RKY) and Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI)
have refused to commit to a timeline
on the passage of a CR, but neither
have suggested there is any serious
threat of a government shutdown.
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)
made headlines at Tuesday’s Senate
Banking Committee hearing when she
told Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf that
he should resign in the wake of the $185
million in penalties that Wells Fargo
has been assessed as the result of an
investigation into its sales practices
abuses. And, it wasn’t just Senator
Warren who took Stumpf to task; the
criticism leveled at both the practices
and Wells Fargo’s decision to fire over
5,000 low level employees in response
to the investigation was bipartisan.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Director Richard Cordray also testified
at the hearing, and expressed concerns
about a bank culture that attempts to
“divide and conquer regulators.”
Robocalls are currently the number one
complaint to t he Federal Communication
Commission (FCC) and as such have
prompted the House Energy and
Commerce’s Communications and
Technology Subcommittee to look at
whether the Telephone Consumer
Protection Act (TCPA) needs to be
updated. At a hearing this week, the
Subcommittee examined how the law
can be amended to continue shielding
consumers from invasive and fraudulent
phone calls, while ensuring companies
can communicate with users without
bearing an undue legal burden.
Coming up next week: The House
Financial Services Committee will
be holding a hearing on Tuesday,
September 27th , entitled “Examining
Legislative Proposals to Address
Consumer Access to Mainstream
Banking Services.” The hearing can be
viewed on their website. Later in the
week, the Committee is expected to hold
a hearing on the Wells Fargo abuses.
National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys
Fall 2016
IN THE AGENCIES A closely watched
Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market
Committee met this week and voted to
hold its main borrowing rate steady.
While acknowledging that the case for
a rate increase “has strengthened”,
they determined that this was not the
right time to increase interest rates.
The decision followed lower-thanexpected jobs numbers in August.
The Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau (CFPB) sued five title lenders
operating in Arizona — Auto Cash
Leasing, LLC; Interstate Lending,
LLC; Oasis Title Loans, LLC; Phoenix
Title Loans, LLC; and Presto Auto
Loans, Inc. — for failing to disclose
the annual percentage rate in online
advertisements about title loans. The
Bureau alleges that the companies
advertised a periodic interest rate
for their loans without listing the
corresponding annual percentage rate,
a violation of the Truth in Lending Act.
In two separate actions, the Federal
Trade Commission (FTC) obtained
a court order banning mortgage
relief scammers from the debt relief
business and settled with a debt
collections company’s former vice
president who is now banned from the
debt collection business. You can read
about these actions here and here.
CONSUMER BANKRUPTCY JOURNAL
7