The Heartland Institute
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Considers Repealing Payday Loan Rule
The Heartland Institute cites former Policy Analyst Daniel Press on CFPB regulations. The costs the payday loan rule imposes on consumers and the…
Blog
Australia Needs an Administrative Procedure Act
In the United States, there is an intellectual movement going on the likes of which have not been seen in nearly a century. The administrative…
Blog
Commonsense New Debt Collection Rule from Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) was passed in 1977, over forty years ago, at a time when telecommunication technology was in its infancy…
Blog
Overhaul Internal Operations at Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
One of the most important, yet least visible, changes a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director could make is to reform the internal operations of…
Blog
Regulators Should Foster Financial Innovation
It is becoming increasingly apparent that financial technology, or “fintech,” like other forms of technology, can drastically improve consumers’ lives. Yet one of the most…
Blog
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Should Acknowledge Its Unconstitutional Structure
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s structure is unconstitutional. The agency’s leadership should recognize it as such.
Blog
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Should Define ‘Abusive’
The Dodd–Frank Act was a mammoth overhaul of financial services regulation. Along with creating an entire new consumer protection agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,…
Blog
Prevent Another Mortgage Crisis: Let Qualified Mortgage ‘Patch’ Expire
Last month, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released its rulemaking agenda for Spring 2019. While there weren’t too many surprises in the agenda, which mainly…
Blog
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Should Drop Flawed Enforcement Actions
While the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s role in enforcing consumer protection laws is important, there are times when it oversteps the mark and brings frivolous…
Blog
Narrowly Address Fair Lending Requirements to Spare Impact on Small Business
Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act amended the Equal Credit Opportunity Act to require financial institutions to collect, report, and make public certain information concerning…
Blog
Reform Fair Lending Laws to Uphold Rule of Law
The CFPB’s new director, Kathleen Kraninger, assured the Senate Banking Committee in her confirmation hearing that she was committed to upholding the rule of law.
Blog
Regulators Should Rescind ‘Small-Dollar’ Loan Rule
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is one of the most controversial regulators in Washington, D.C. Since its founding in 2010 under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street…
Blog
Credit Card Interest Cap Would Create Consumer Credit Bread Lines
Last Thursday Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) teamed up to introduce a bill that only two democratic socialists could have dreamed up.
Blog
Good and Bad of Government’s Debt Collection Proposal
Earlier this month, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released a much-anticipated proposal to revamp the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), a forty-two year old…
Comment
CEI Comments on CFPB Payday Loan Rule
View Full Document as PDF Introduction On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (“CEI”), I am pleased to provide the following comment…
Blog
Australian Government Tempts Mortgage Crisis
It seems that Australia’s political parties are suffering from collective amnesia. After spending the earlier half of the year criticizing banks for abrogating their responsible…
Blog
The Economic Illiteracy of a 36 Percent Interest Rate Cap
Earlier this week, the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing on a draft bill that proposes to set a national 36 percent annual percentage…
Blog
Will Reforming Consumer Finance Regulation Cause a Recession?
Will reforming consumer finance regulation cause a recession? That is the claim of a recent article in The Hill. Yet, the article provides little evidence to…
The Hill
Federal Reserve defies White House and Congress on Banking Regulation
President Trump and the Federal Reserve continue to clash over interest rates, but another simmering dispute concerns the regulatory burden the Federal Reserve and other…
Blog
CEI Leads Coalition Supporting Reformed Payday Loan Rule
Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute led a coalition of eighteen free market organizations in support of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s decision to rescind portions of…
Blog
Reformed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Can Be Free-Market Regulator
Earlier this week, The New York Times Magazine rolled out another edition of the tired old trope of how former acting Director Mick Mulvaney “destroyed”…
Blog
Restrictions on Debt Collection Impede Access to Credit
In a market economy that is based on private property and the rule of law, the efficient and effective enforcement of contracts is indispensable. Without…
Blog
Bank Regulators Must Correct Flawed Volcker Rule Proposal
As my colleague Devin Watkins discussed earlier this month, a number of federal administrative agencies are refusing to correctly implement a crucial piece of regulatory…
Blog
Fintech and the Future of Consumer Finance
Everyone understands the need for access to credit. No matter how well we budget, we occasionally come up short due to an unexpected circumstance or expense—a…
Inside Sources
The Trump Administration Just Relaxed Payday Lending Rules. Is That Good or Bad for Borrowers?
Inside Sources cited Policy Analyst Daniel Press on the CFPB and payday loans: When drafting the original payday lending rule, the CFPB believed…
The Washington Post
CFPB Wants to Weaken Rules for Payday Loans
The Washington Post cited Policy Analyst Daniel Press on payday loans and the CFPB: “The newly proposed payday loan rule is…
Blog
Financial Services ‘Regulatory Sandbox’ Is Win for Consumers
The comment period on a critical new initiative to promote innovation in financial services from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau closed this Monday. My colleague…
Comment
CEI Comments to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection Proposed Policy on No-Action Letters and Product Sandbox
On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (“CEI"), we are pleased to provide the following comment letter on the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection’s (“Bureau,”…
Fox Business
Payday Loan Regulations Rollback is Win for Business, Consumers
Chalk up another win for President Trump’s deregulatory agenda - the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last week announced a plan to reconsider an Obama-era regulation…
Fox Business
Payday loan regulations rollback is win for business, consumers
Chalk up another win for President Trump’s deregulatory agenda – the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last week announced a plan to reconsider an Obama-era regulation…
News Release
CFPB Starts Rollback of Flawed Payday Loan Rule
Today the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced plans to roll back its controversial Obama-era rule against payday lending. CEI financial policy expert Daniel Press welcomed…
Blog
Fintech: A Bipartisan Priority for the 116th Congress
While the 115th Congress did not achieve all that was hoped for with regards to financial services reform, it did make important progress to achieving…
Institute of Public Affairs
GFC Lessons Not Learnt
This year marks a most unhappy tenth anniversary—the onset of the global financial crisis. What began as a meltdown of the American real estate market…
Inside Sources
CFPB May Scrap Underwriting Requirements for Payday Loans
Inside Sources cited Policy Analyst Daniel Press on his paper, How the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Payday Loan Rule Hurts the Working Poor.
Blog
Agenda for the 116th Congress: Banking and Finance
Perhaps one of the most under-appreciated aspects of our modern world is the fact that finance is fundamental to the operation of a free and…
Blog
Year in Review 2018: Consumer Financial Protection
2018 was a big year for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (also known, for a while, as the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection). The past year…
Blog
Five Priorities for New BCFP Director
Kathleen Kraninger was confirmed as director of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. She has promised to implement a free market reform agenda, focusing on…
Blog
Senate Democrats’ Report Misses Mark on Mulvaney
While President Trump’s nominee to head the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, Kathleen Kraninger, awaits a final confirmation vote in the Senate, Senate Democrats have…
Breitbart
CFPB Nominee Kathleen Kraninger Clears Cloture Hurdle In Senate
Breitbart cited CEI’s Senior Fellow John Berlau and Policy Analyst Daniel Press on Kathleen Kraninger nomination. The vote was strictly along party lines,…
IA InsideARM
Senate Vote On Kraninger To Lead BCFP Expected Tomorrow
IA InsideARM cited CEI’s Senior Fellow John Berlau and Policy Analyst Daniel Press on BCFP nominee Kathleen Kraninger. As insideARM reported earlier,…
The Washington Times
Free-Market Group Calls On Senate To Confirm Kathleen Kraninger To Lead Consumer Bureau
The Washington Times cited CEI’s Policy Analyst Daniel Press on BCFP nominee, Kathleen Kraninger. A conservative free-enterprise group urged the Senate Wednesday to…
News Release
Senate Should Confirm Trump Nominee for Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection: CEI Statements
This week, the United States Senate is expected to vote on President Trump’s nominee to head the powerful Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. CEI financial…
Blog
Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection Needs to Rewrite Payday Loan Rule
Last week, I wrote a blog post on how the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection could go about narrowly rewriting the payday loan rule. This would…
Blog
What Do the Midterms Mean for Financial Services?
Blog
How to Rewrite the Payday Loan Rule
Last Friday, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection announced that it will be reconsidering its’ controversial Payday, Vehicle Title, and High-Cost Installment Loan rule.
Blog
Promise and Pitfalls of Treasury Fintech Report
July 31st, 2018, was one of the most exciting days for financial technology regulation in recent memory. Around 10 a.m. that morning was when the…
The Washington Examiner
A Decade after the Financial Crisis, the Government Fuels Another Housing Bubble
Ten years ago this month marks the anniversary of one of the most dramatic events of the 2008 financial crisis: the collapse of Lehman Brothers,…
Blog
The Financial Crisis 10 Years Later: What’s Changed?
Ten years ago, the United States plunged into a financial crisis that would bring the world economy to the brink of collapse. The housing bubble…
Blog
The Financial Crisis 10 Years Later: Restrictions on Housing Supply Makes Matters Worse
The broader financial crisis of 2007-2008 was the result of the U.S residential housing market collapse. That housing collapse itself was a consequence of an…
Blog
The Financial Crisis 10 Years Later: Fannie and Freddie Fueled the Subprime Mortgage Bubble
If anything symbolizes the American dream, it is homeownership—an asset that is viewed as part of a route from poverty and exclusion to independence and…
Blog
The Financial Crisis 10 Years Later: A Legacy of Racist Government Housing Policy
A decade ago this Saturday, the world shook as Lehman Brothers, the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States, filed for bankruptcy. Representing one of…
News Release
Ten Year Anniversary of Financial Crisis and Nothing Has Improved
It’s been 10 years since investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy as of September 15, marking the epicenter of the infamous 2008 financial crisis.
Blog
Democratic Attorneys General Wrong on Fair Lending Laws
On Wednesday, a coalition of fourteen Democratic attorneys generals wrote a letter to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection urging the acting director, Mick…
Blog
Securities and Exchange Commission Seeks to Liberalize ‘Accredited Investor’ Standard
Great news for middle-class investors and start-up businesses alike—on Thursday, the Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton announced that the SEC is looking…
Blog
Australian Government Calls for Interchange Fee Ban
One would expect that years of failing policy would force policymakers to reconsider the wisdom of their actions. But not for the Australian Productivity Commission,…
Blog
California Supreme Court Rules Interest Rates May Be ‘Unconscionable’
Last Monday, the California Supreme Court ruled that interest rates on loans over $2,500 could be deemed ‘unconscionable’ even if usury laws permit them. In…
Blog
Finance Regulators Create New National Charter for Innovative ‘Fintech’ Companies
After years of speculation, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced Tuesday that it would begin considering applications for special purpose…
Blog
New York State’s Flawed Online Lending Report
Earlier this month, the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) released a study of online lending, including findings and recommendations for changes in…
Blog
Appeals Court Rules Federal Housing Finance Agency Unconstitutional
Big news out of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals—the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is unconstitutionally structured. The FHFA was created in the wake…
Blog
Five Questions for Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection Nominee Kathy Kraninger
Kathy Kraninger, President Trump’s nominee to head the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (formerly known as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB), will…
Blog
Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection Must Define New Rulemaking Powers
When Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010, there was an unprecedented allocation of power to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (BCFP—previously known as…
Comment
CEI Comments on the CFPB’s Request for Information Regarding Adopted Regulations and New Rulemaking Authorities
On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), we are pleased to provide the following comments on the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection’s (Bureau or…
Blog
Last Chance for the 115th: Bring Accountability to the Financial Regulators
In CEI’s “Free to Prosper: A Pro-Growth Agenda for the 115th Congress,” my colleagues John Berlau and Iain Murray made the enduring recommendation…
Blog
How to Improve Rulemaking at the CFPB
This week, the Competitive Enterprise Institute submitted comments to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, on how it could improve its rulemaking to provide a better…
Comment
CEI Comments on The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection’s RIF Regarding Rulemaking Processes
On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), we are pleased to provide the following comments on the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection’s (bureau or…
News Release
Dodd-Frank Volcker Rule Rollback Will Help Entrepreneurs, Investors
The Federal Reserve Board is expected today to start rolling back the Volcker Rule, a controversial Dodd-Frank provision that prohibits federally insured commercial banks from…
Blog
Finance Regulators Pave Way for Banks to Reenter Small-Dollar Loan Market
Under the letter of the law, banks can now reenter the small-dollar lending space. On Wednesday, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)…
Blog
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Reexamines Anti-Discrimination Enforcement
This week President Trump signed a resolution of disapproval overturning one of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s most controversial regulatory actions—the inappropriate application of…
Blog
Ending Disparate Enforcement at Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Just last week, Congress voted to overturn one of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s most controversial regulatory actions—a guidance document that was used…
News Release
Report: CFPB Can Fix Fair Lending Laws, Improve Consumer Protection and Access to Credit
A new Competitive Enterprise Institute report urges the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to remedy Obama-era misuse of a 1970s law, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act…
Study
The CFPB and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act
View Full Document as PDF Freedom, equality, and justice are all bedrock principles of the American experiment. Yet it is no secret…
News Release
House Vote to Stop CFPB Auto Loan Rule Wins CEI Praise
Today, the House of Representatives passed a resolution to stop a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rule aimed at curtailing certain auto loan practices.
Blog
Post Office Payday Loans: A Stunningly Bad Idea
Like clockwork, every so often a new member of Congress will rehash an old, tired idea: having the United States Postal Service (USPS) make short-term,…
Blog
Congress Should Axe Backdoor Auto Finance Rule
This week, Congress has a unique opportunity to repeal one of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s worst regulatory actions. Using the Congressional Review Act (CRA),…
Washington Times
Leaving the Ultimate Misnomer Behind
Congress has a dwindling number of days left to stop a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) regulation that will make payday loans difficult for consumers to get.
The Wall Street Journal
Mick Mulvaney Replies to Elizabeth Warren
Daniel Press writes a letter-to-the-editor to The Wall Street Journal in response to Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s complaints in “Republicans Remain Silent as Mulvaney’s CFPB…
Blog
Acting Director Asks Congress for Reform of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
On Monday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released its first semi-annual report to Congress under its new Acting Director, Mick Mulvaney. A routine procedure…
Blog
Commonwealth Nations Beating America on FinTech Regulation
While the United States continues to have healthy development of financial technologies—thanks predominately to unparalleled access to capital and technology—it is at risk of falling…
Blog
Arizona Becomes First State to Establish FinTech Sandbox
As the only state where all four North American deserts reside, it’s fitting that Arizona became the first state to establish a “sandbox” for financial…
Blog
3 Proposals to Temper the Federal Payday Loan Rule
When the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized a rule regulating payday loans in October last year, I wrote that this could be the end…
News Release
CEI Commends Senate for Passing Bipartisan Dodd-Frank Reform Bill
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) commends the U.S. Senate on passage of Sen. Crapo's S. 2155, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act.
Blog
3 Reasons the Senate Should Pass Financial Reform
The Senate is expected to vote on its first major piece of financial reform this week since the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010. A bipartisan bill…
Yahoo Finance!
New House Bill Would Kill Consumer Watchdog Payday Loan Rule
Yahoo! Finance cited Daniel Press on the necessity of access for consumers to receive a payday loan. A congressional resolution introduced in the House…
Blog
The Government Killed Free Checking—Can Amazon Save It?
Amazon's move into banking services spells good news for currently under-served consumers, who often rely on relatively expensive financial services such as payday lending or…
News Release
Sen. Crapo’s Dodd-Frank Reform Bill: Important, Commonsense Step Toward Relief for Small Banks
This week, the U.S. Senate is expected to vote on Senator Mike Crapo’s bipartisan Dodd-Frank reform bill, “Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act”…
Blog
If the Payday Lending Rule Stays, Ability-to-Repay Does, Too
Many in the financial services industry seem to believe the CFPB's ability to replay rule doesn’t impact them and it’s not worth fighting. That is…
The Hill
There’s Nothing to Fear About Modest Banking Reform
The United States financial system is in desperate need of reform. The hundreds of new rules and regulations imposed by the Dodd-Frank Act have devastated…
Blog
Government Not Only Source of Regulation for Finance
One of the most misunderstood and underappreciated aspects of free market economics is the idea of private or “self” regulation. Up until recently, private enterprises…
Bloomberg Law
House Bid to Ax Payday Rule Kicks Off With Bipartisan Support
Bloomberg Law cited Daniel Press on the leadership expressed by House lawmakers for blocking a law that would impede upon the loan-granting process that would…
Washington Examiner
Payday-loan borrowers need protection from the poorly-named Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
In an epic, down to the wire vote last week Congressional Republicans narrowly overturned a regulation that would have enriched lawyers at the expense of…
RealClear Policy
Congress, Follow the White House’s Lead on CFPB Reform
Hidden within a single line of a statistical table in President Trump’s 2019 budget is one of the most drastic reform proposals offered up in…
Harper's Magazine
House of Cards
Daniel Press is featured in a letter to the editor of Harpers Magazine: Despite Andrew Cockburn’s assurances in “Swap Meet” [Letter from…
RealClearMarkets
Undoing President Obama’s Damage Will Take Time
RealClearMarkets quoted Daniel Press on banking regulations impact on the banking system. Ronald Reagan once said, “No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in…
The Hill
Why are we still regulating Main Street like Wall Street?
It’s no secret that banks across America aren’t doing well under the Dodd-Frank Act, Congress’s response to the 2008 financial crisis. Since Dodd-Frank’s enactment in…
Compliance Week
Coalition Urges Congress to Halt CFPB Rule on ‘Payday’ Loans
Compliance Week covers CEI’s coalition letter urging Congress to stop the CFPB’s payday-loan rule. On Feb. 6, 23 free market groups led by the…
News Release
CEI Coalition Urges Congress to Stop CFPB Rule Curtailing Short-Term Consumer Loans
Today, 23 free market groups led by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) sent a letter to Congress asking lawmakers to stop the Consumer Financial…
Blog
The Myth of Independence at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
The myth of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau independence invalidates the Bureau’s protection from the President and Congress. The extreme insulation is predicated on protecting the…
Blog
Mulvaney Saving, Not ‘Dismantling,’ Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Effective consumer protection does not require a body as unaccountable, powerful, and ideologically driven as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In short, it does not…
U.S. News & World Report
Cutting Off Consumers
A new regulation will burden low- and middle-income Americans reliant on payday loans. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau just released a new rule against payday…
The Hill
Congress Must Use Its Tools to Block Consumer Bureau’s Payday Loan Rule
Big things are happening at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a recently-created but unusually powerful government agency. Now temporarily headed by Trump’s Director of the Office…