Bank of America will have to pay more than $100 million to customers for doubling up on some fees, withholding reward bonuses, and opening accounts without customer consent, said a federal agency in a statement Tuesday. Separately, Bank of America will have to pay some $90 million in penalties to its organization and $60 million in…

An employee of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) made unauthorized transfers of confidential data relating to 256,000 consumers to a personal email account, the bureau has revealed. The CFPB found personally identifiable information relating to customers of seven institutions that had been forwarded by a staffer—who is no longer employed at the CFPB. The…

The Supreme Court agreed on Feb. 27 to hear a second challenge to the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in three years. The appeal gives the court’s 6–3 conservative majority an opportunity to continue its campaign to restrain the so-called administrative state by curtailing the authority of regulators and placing them under…

Flanked by members of the White House Competition Council he created after taking office, President Joe Biden on Wednesday urged Congress to pass the Junk Fee Prevention Act at the council’s fourth meeting. Part of that legislation would cap credit card late fees at around $8 and eliminate or limit other charges, Biden said. Estimating…

The funding stream for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), created by Congress and approved by then-President Barack Obama in 2008, is unconstitutional, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Oct. 19. The bureau, which has a mission to implement and enforce federal consumer finance law, was given the power to oversee 18 federal laws, ranging from…

A recently introduced bill by a House Republican seeks to protect community banks from a harmful provision in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act. The Making the CFPB Accountable to Small Business Act seeks to repeal Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act that requires lenders to collect and report 12 data points when processing credit applications from…

Commentary The crises of recent years tend to erase from memory those that preceded them. One, as you may recall, was the financial collapse of 2008—a collapse deemed by many as the worst since the Great Depression. That collapse swept into power a government like the one we have now—the White House and both houses…

Debt collectors can now text, email, and send direct messages to borrowers on social media after new rules approved by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) took effect on Tuesday. The new rules clarify how debt collectors can use email, text messages, social media, and other contemporary methods to communicate with consumers. It also enables borrowers to limit…