The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced a new appointment today, that of Stuart Ishimaru as the leader of the Office of Minority and Women Inclusion at the bureau. Previously, Ishimaru was the acting chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. So he knows his stuff, ostensibly. [More]
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Group Alleges 'Good Morning Vietnam' DJ Misled Troubled Homeowners
By 4.27.12
Though he bears little resemblance to the record-slinging, Nixon-impersonating prankster played by Robin Williams in Good Morning, Vietnam, former Air Force radio DJ Adrian Cronauer is still closely associated with the 1987 comedy. Now, Cronauer is making a different sort of headline after the National Community Reinvestment Coalition has filed a pair of complaints against the law firm that bears his name. [More]
CFPB Checking Out The $31 Billion Banks Charged In Overdraft Fees
By 4.20.12
If banks had boots, mayhap they’d be quaking them right about now: the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is on the case, reviewing nine U.S. banks over their practices to see if they’re on the up and up when it comes to charging overdraft fees. [More]
CFPB Complaint Portal Resolves Problem That Years Of Phone Calls Could Not
By 4.19.12
In March the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau launched a complaint portal for people with unresolved issues tied to their checking and savings accounts. Now we’re hearing the first of what we hope are numerous success stories from Consumerist readers who have tried the CFPB portal. [More]
CFPB Rolls Out Tool To Help Students Comparison Shop For Financial Aid
By 4.12.12
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is in its infancy, but already it’s taking steps to create tools that can help people in a very real way. It rolled out a beta version of a cost comparison shopping tool, aimed at guiding students and their families through the process of researching financial aid options. [More]
CFPB Working On Rules To Whip Mortgage-Servicing Industry Into Shape
By 4.10.12
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is sinking its teeth into its new watchdog role, as today they’re expected to announce a few rules they’re working on to try and clean up the mortgage-servicing industry. Here’s where we imagine banks quaking in their big ol’ boots. [More]
CFPB Now Answering Your Finance Questions
By 3.23.12
Want to know who you need to call when disputing an error on your credit report? Are you curious about what a “reverse mortgage” is? Well, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has just launched a new interactive service that fields questions like these and provides answers without all the usual fancy finance jargon. [More]
Got A Student Loan Complaint? Take It To The CFPB
By 3.6.12
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has opened up its latest portal for American consumers to register their complaints with various types of lenders. Now people with issues regarding their federal or private student loans have a place to connect — and hopefully reach some sort of resolution. [More]
CFPB Now Taking Complaints About Checking, Savings Accounts
By 3.5.12
Seven months after launching its credit card complaint portal, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has started taking complaints from checking and savings account customers — and actually expects banks to respond. [More]
CFPB To Take A Closer Look At Overdraft Fees
By 2.22.12
Expensive and complicated overdraft fees are pretty high on, if not at the top of, many bank customers’ complaint lists. So it only makes sense that the newly formed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has decided to look into whether or not these fees are a fair way to keep people from overdrafting, or just a profit center for banks. [More]
Cordray: Credit Bureaus Are A "Murky Unknown" To Consumers
By 2.21.12
Last week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced it was drafting new regulations that would allow for the oversight of the largest credit reporting bureaus and debt collection companies. The reason, explains CFPB head Richard Cordray is that many consumers are in the dark about these businesses and feel somewhat helpless when it comes to dealing with them. [More]
CFPB Seeking To Get Credit Bureaus & Debt Collectors Under Its Watch
By 2.16.12
Now that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finally has a director, Richard Cordray, it’s making some big moves to bring in debt collectors and credit bureaus under the umbrella of industries they want to supervise. [More]
Republicans: Expect Legal Challenges To Richard Cordray's 'Invalid' Appointment As CFPB Head
By 1.31.12
Republican senators have a buzzy little bee in their collective bonnets over the appointment of Richard Cordray as the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. See, they’re mad that President Obama took it upon himself to finalize the deed while the Senate was in recess, and say his “invalid” appointment will hurt business. [More]
Have A Private Student Loan Horror Story? Today Is The Last Day To Tell The CFPB
By 1.17.12
We see enough horror stories about private student loans that we know there must be quite a few of them out there. If you’d like to contribute to the public good by sharing your experience, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau would like to hear what you have to say. And if you actually had a good experience the CFPB would like to hear about that, too. [More]
New CFPB Chief: Consumers Need To Fully Understand Costs & Risks Of Borrowing
By 1.5.12
Only a day after being appointed — in the face of stalwart Senate Republicans — as head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray took to YouTube to share his vision of the CFPB’s mission. [More]
President To Just Go Ahead And Appoint Cordray As Financial Protection Chief
By 1.4.12
It’s been nearly six months since President Obama picked former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray as his nominee to head the recently created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But with Senate Republicans continuing to block a vote on Cordray’s appointment, the President has decided to go ahead and use his authority to fill the position by making a recess appointment. [More]
Senate Expected To Vote On Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Tomorrow
By 12.7.11
It feels like it was ages ago when former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray (not to be confused with his doppelganger NBC page Kenneth Ellen Parcell) was announced as the White House’s nominee for director of the recently formed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Now it’s almost time to cue some sort of dramatic music as the Senate is expected to thumbs-up-or-down the nomination on Thursday. [More]
6 Warning Signs Of A Mortgage Modification Scam
By 12.5.11
Getting a mortgage is difficult enough. Having that mortgage modified because your house has dropped in value can be a Minotaur’s maze full of unscrupulous types looking to cash in on your uncertainty about the often complicated process. [More]
