Kate Berry

Think Finance, which had teamed with tribal lenders to offer high interest installment loans, could no longer make or collect on loans in states that have caps on interest rates, under terms of a proposed settlement with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

In a letter to CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger, the Democratic senators argue that task force members cannot be trusted to protect consumers because they have represented payday lenders or Wall Street banks, or worked at law firms that did so.

The two agencies said they will exchange student loan complaint data after their information-sharing efforts had been in limbo for over two years.

Now that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says it will scrap an unpopular standard for so-called qualified mortgages, the big question is what will take its place.

The agency has named Thomas G. Ward as the bureau’s assistant director for enforcement. House Democrats have questioned Ward's role as a political appointee in the Trump administration.

In the past, the agency cited the legal term in enforcement actions without stating what it meant, but Director Kathy Kraninger has sought to give the industry clearer guidance.

Democratic lawmakers, state attorneys general and others filed briefs with the Supreme Court rebutting claims that the agency’s leadership structure is unconstitutional.

The agency is sending a strong message that it won’t rush to end an exemption for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac while also signaling longer-term changes that will affect all lenders.

In another sign of state officials trying to outdo the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, governors in California and New York want greater authority to license and oversee the debt collection industry.

The Supreme Court appointed Paul Clement to represent the agency after the bureau’s current director questioned its constitutionality.

In a letter to the agency's inspector general, the 15 lawmakers pointed to specific cases where they said the bureau departed from legal standards in deciding not to require restitution.

Former CFPB Director Richard Cordray and consumer advocates have designed a proposed state consumer agency that would subject more financial firms and fintechs to state oversight.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom plans to ask the legislature to revamp the current Department of Business Oversight and rename it the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, modeled after the federal CFPB.

Todd Zywicki, a law professor who has sharply criticized the CFPB as an unaccountable bureaucracy, has been named chair of an agency task force identifying potential conflicts and inconsistencies in consumer finance law.

The case before the court deals mainly with a statutory clause limiting the president’s ability to fire a CFPB director. But briefs filed with the court say striking that provision does not fully solve the bureau’s constitutional problems.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau faces a busy policy agenda heading into the new year, as well as strong external forces that are beyond its control.

The two Democrats sent a letter “raising grave concerns about whether the bureau is fulfilling its statutory obligations.”

Despite assurances by Director Kathy Kraninger that the agency is cracking down on discrimination, it hasn't sent a Department of Justice referral on a fair-lending violation in two years.

The two Democratic senators said the bureau's policy could allow companies to circumvent consumer finance laws.

The agency announced changes meant to reduce compliance costs and allow some institutions to provide estimates rather than disclose exact prices for international money transfers.