In a significant development, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has ordered Toyota Motor Credit Corporation to pay $60 million in consumer redress and penalties for engaging in an illegal scheme that unfairly burdened borrowers. The company’s alleged misconduct included preventing the cancellation of product bundles, withholding refunds, and tarnishing consumers’ credit reports with false…
Every year, the nationwide consumer reporting agencies (NCRAs)—Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion- receive tens of thousands of complaints regarding incorrect information on consumer credit reports. And, every year, the NCRAs attempt to solve their communication/operational problems with new policies that sometimes work and sometimes make no significant difference. Recently, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released its…
The COVID-19 pandemic caused widespread uncertainty among consumers, and many families were forced to make hard decisions about how to allocate their resources. Unfortunately, amidst these uncertainties, some lenders didn’t follow the provisional pandemic policies put into place to protect consumers. Learn how some loan providers took advantage of consumers during the pandemic and how…
2020 was a tough year for governments and consumers alike. In a year full of difficulties in all walks of life, it’s no surprise that consumer complaints regarding credit reporting errors doubled the amount recorded in 2019! In 2020, consumers filed over 280,000 complaints about inaccuracies and errors on their credit reports with the Consumer…
Ocwen is amongst the largest mortgage servicers in the country. It holds mortgage debts with a face value more than $400 billion. Ocwen specializes in “default” servicing – meaning that it services loans where the consumer is behind. On April 20th & 21st, state and federal regulators took a range of legal actions against Ocwen… Read more
In a time of limited resources, perhaps a new model is emerging of joint CFPB/State Attorney General enforcement actions. The 2015 joint action by the Bureau and Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh provides a nice case study. In 2015, Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau took an action against a… Read more
The two largest debt buyers in the US, Encore Capital Group (owner of Midland Funding, LLC) and Portfolio Recovery Associates spoke with officials at the CFPB for over a year, a fact repeatedly mentioned by Encore and PRA in calls with their investors. In September, the results of those talks were announced by the CFPB. Read more
A proposed Consent Order has been filed in the CFPB’s enforcement action against Frederick J. Hanna Associates. This was the first enforcement action by the CFPB directly against a collection law firm and was the subject of a vigorous defense by Hanna and much comment in the trade press. Hanna lost its motion to dismiss… Read more
The New York Times has published a three-part in depth series (1, 2, 3) on forced arbitration, in the wake the CFPB’s proposal to prohibit class action waivers through arbitration. The Times series covers many of the familiar problems with arbitration: the pressures on arbitrators to please the companies which select them, the denial of… Read more
A few years ago, Encore Capital, the parent of debt buyer Midland Funding, LLC started spreading money around overseas, mostly notably with the acquisition of Cabot, a debt-buyer in the United Kingdom. It’s most recent quarterly call with investors (transcript available here, signup required) paints an interesting picture of its ever-expanding global reach. The call… Read more
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