The House Financial Services Committee has announced that it will hold the following hearings this month:

  • On January 14, the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions will hold a hearing entitled, “The Community Reinvestment Act: Reviewing Who Wins and Who Loses with Comptroller Otting’s Proposal.”  (On January 29, from 12 p.m.
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In an interesting coincidence, the comment period for the CFPB’s Request for Information (“RFI”) on mobile financial services closed the same day, September 10th, that Apple announced “Apple Pay”—a new mobile wallet included with the iPhone 6 that could shake up the mobile payments landscape.  The RFI, which we reported on earlier, speaks optimistically of potential cost savings for underbanked consumers while expressing concern about ensuring that consumers remain adequately protected. … Continue Reading

The CFPB announced yesterday that it will hold a field hearing on mobile financial services on June 12, 2014 at 10 a.m. in New Orleans. The hearing will be held at The Old U.S. Mint, located at 400 Esplanade Ave., and feature remarks from Director Cordray and testimony from consumer groups, industry representatives, and members of the public.… Continue Reading

The CFPB has issued a proposed policy under which it would exempt individual companies, on a case-by-case basis, from current federal disclosure requirements to allow those companies to test trial disclosures.  The proposal, which is directed at “banks, thrifts, credit unions, and other financial services companies,” contemplates that participating companies would share test result data with the CFPB. … Continue Reading

I regularly work with technology innovators to help them get their ideas cleaned up for financial institutions and to give them a headstart in understanding the types of risk concerns and controls that financial institutions are going to have and want.  To technology innovators who may be intrigued by the CFPB’s request for dialogue, I wanted to provide my thoughts on some steps to take before charging through the Project Catalyst doors and throwing your ideas in front of the CFPB.… Continue Reading

The CFPB publicly acknowledged yesterday their interest in innovation in consumer financial services by launching Project Catalyst, as already reported in this blog.  It is quite the departure from precedent for a banking regulator to actually express interest in being supportive of new technologies and how they could improve consumer financial services. … Continue Reading

Mobile PhoneWe frequently hear that regulations take a long time to catch up with the technology.  On June 29, the House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit held a hearing to determine whether regulations need to catch up to cover consumer payments made using mobile devices. According to written testimony submitted by the CFPB’s Marla Blow, Assistant Director for Card and Payment Markets, the answer seems to be “yes.” … Continue Reading