Letters
CEI Coalition Letter in Support of the Renewing Efficiency in Government by Budgeting Act
Letters
Letter of Support on the Small Business Regulatory Reduction Act and the POST IT Act
News Release
House Oversight and Accountability Committee unanimously advances regulatory reform legislation
Earlier today, the House Oversight and Accountability Committee advanced 41 to 0 the Guidance Out of Darkness (GOOD) Act from Rep. James Comer (R-KY).
Letters
Letter of Support on H.R. 890 and H.R. 3230
Blog
House hearing warns of Biden’s admin’s ‘death by a thousand regulations’
The House Oversight and Accountability Committee held a hearing last week titled “Death by a Thousand Regulations: The Biden Administration’s Campaign to Bury America…
Blog
Senate Commerce hearing shows why some junk fees aren’t garbage
In his State of the Union address this February, President Biden reiterated his intent to crack down on so-called junk fees. Biden discussed…
Blog
Regulatory reform in the 118th Congress: Regulatory Accountability Act
In 2003, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published Circular A-4. A-4 is little-known but crucial oversight measure for new regulations. It gives…
Blog
Regulatory reform in the 118th Congress: Small Business Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act
The Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) of 1980 was an important transparency measure for vetting new regulations. But it falls short in some important areas,…
Blog
Regulatory Reform in the 118th Congress: Separation of Powers Restoration Act
The separation of powers is a key aspect of American government. To decentralize power and ensure checks and balances, the Founders divided the federal government…
News Release
Report: APR Calculation Misleading as Applied to Short-Term Loan Costs
A new Competitive Enterprise Institute report criticizes efforts by lawmakers and activists to impose a cap on small-dollar, short-term loans based on a hypothetical…
Study
The Annual Percentage Rate Is the Wrong Metric for Assessing the Cost of a Short-Term Loan
Think calculating the cost of a loan is simple? Not under the longtime rules of the federal government and many states. Consider the following recent…
News Release
Senate Defeats Effort to Undo Reforms to 1977 Community Reinvestment Act
Senate Democrats tried unsuccessfully tonight to undo recent reforms made to the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act. CEI financial policy expert Matthew Adams explains why the…
Blog
FinCEN Files Shows Regulatory and Privacy Concerns with the Bank Secrecy Act and the Necessity for Reform or Repeal
Last month, BuzzFeed News published an investigative report that alleged that banks sat on their hands while criminals laundered trillions of dollars over the…
Blog
Fed’s Community Reinvestment Act Reform Proposal Is a Step in the Wrong Direction
Last month, the Federal Reserve released a preliminary proposal to update the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). The Fed’s proposal, spearheaded by Obama-appointed Fed Governor Lael…
Blog
New CFPB Reports Find Consumer Credit Resiliency During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Recent research from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has found that consumers have not experienced significant increases in negative credit outcomes as a result…
Blog
California’s Proposed Mini-CFPB Is Cronyist and Ill-Conceived
Earlier this month, the California Legislature passed the California Consumer Financial Protection Law (CCFPL) to create a new state-based regulatory agency modeled after the federal Consumer…
Blog
The Washington Post Plays Fast and Loose in Coverage of CFPB performance During Pandemic
In a recent piece, Washington Post Opinions Contributor Helaine Olen slammed CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger for doing too little to protect consumers during the COVID-19…
Blog
CFPB Shouldn’t Burden Debt Settlement with Regulations that Could Harm Consumers
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently published a report that explores the use and proliferation of debt settlement. While its findings identify some important trends…
The Washington Times
CFPB Retools Payday Loan Rules to Help Desperate Americans Access an Important Source of Credit
Despite phased reopenings across the country, the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic continues, keeping unemployment too high and straining personal finances.
News Release
CFPB Offers Relief on Small Dollar Loans
Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released its long-awaited final rewrite of the payday lending rule, formally titled the Payday, Vehicle Title, and Certain…
Blog
Seila Law Leaves More Questions than Answers over the Constitutionality of Past CFPB Actions
On June 29, the Supreme Court ruled the structure of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to be unconstitutional. Chief Justice John Roberts delivered the majority opinion,…
News Release
Rather than reversing new fair-lending rules, Congress should instead completely repeal the Community Reinvestment Act
Today, House Democrats plan to use the Congressional Review Act to overturn recent actions taken by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)…
News Release
CEI Opposes the Protecting Your Credit Score Act
The House of Representatives today is considering H.R. 5332, the Protecting Your Credit Score Act, a bill that would require credit bureaus to jointly create…
Blog
Webinar Panel: Thoughts on the HEROES Act and Regulation of the Debt Collection Industry
Debt collection firms play a vital role in a market economy, as part of the "plumbing"—the underlying architecture—that makes modern credit markets possible. Legislation to…
Blog
Navient Files for Summary Judgement in Meritless CFPB Case
On May 19, student loan servicer Navient filed for summary judgement on a CFPB lawsuit started over three years ago. In the filing, Navient urged…
ACA International
From the Web: How the HEROES Act Constrains Debt Collection to the Detriment of Consumers
ACA International cites Policy Analyst Matthew Adams on the HEROES Act: In a blog post for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Policy Analyst Matthew…
Blog
HEROES Act Mostly Grows Government, But Has Redeeming Cannabis Banking Provision
The HEROES Act calls for trillions of dollars in new deficit spending and includes a number of longstanding progressive pet projects unrelated to the COVID-19…
Blog
A National Interest Rate Cap Has No Place in the Next Coronavirus Relief Package
As the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc, it’s crucial that struggling Americans have access to affordable short-term credit. Congress should reject calls to include a…
Blog
Facts, Not Feelings, Should Inform Regulation of the Debt Settlement Industry
As money gets tight during the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine, policy makers need to ensure that struggling households have multiple options to manage their debts…
Blog
Why Is Trump’s SEC Chairman Looking to Bring Back an Obama-era Financial Rule?
SEC Chairman Jay Clayton has proposed a set of regulations last fall that would bar many middle class investors from buying mutual funds and exchange-traded…
Blog
Financial Services Committee Democrats Release COVID-19 Wish List
This week, Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee unveiled their public policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic. While framed as a goodwill attempt at…
News Release
Congress Should Reject Scheme to Use COVID-19 Stimulus to Impose Interest Rate Cap
Special interest groups are pressuring Congress to use the Coronavirus Stimulus Phase III bill as a vehicle for imposing a nationwide interest rate cap on…
Blog
Minting Trillion-Dollar Platinum Coins Won’t Help Fight the Economic Downturn
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) introduced legislation aimed at tackling the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. Tlaib’s bill would give every single person in America…
Blog
As Supreme Court Debates CFPB Constitutionality, Agency Accountability Hangs in the Balance
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments last week over the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and whether, as currently structured, it is too…
Blog
SEC’s Proposed Rules Would Take ETFs out of the Hands of Middle-Class Investors
CEI recently signed on to a coalition letter encouraging the Securities and Exchange Commission to abandon its plans to further regulate certain financial products and…
Blog
Chairman Crapo Offers Hope for Safe Banking in Controversial Industries
Last October, the House passed the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act to provide safe harbor for banks and credit unions doing business with…
Blog
Democratic Witnesses Oppose Interest Rate Cap
American Banker ran a piece last week on a proposed law to impose an interest rate cap on small-dollar loans. While the hearing revealed the…
Blog
Interest Rate Caps Harm Financial Inclusion; Bank Partnerships Spread Inclusion Around
The House Financial Services Committee held a hearing last week on small-dollar lending and proposed legislation that would limit the interest rates on such loans.
Blog
CFPB Takes a Step to End Regulation by Enforcement
After almost a decade of ambiguity, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has finally offered some clarity to its definition of what constitutes an “abusive” practice…
Blog
Divisions Between Bank Regulators Over Fair-Lending Revamp Highlight the Need for Outright Repeal
Despite hesitation from the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has made clear that they plan to push forward with…
Blog
Despite Naysayers, Consumer Finance Panelists are Uniquely Qualified to Tackle Barriers to Financial Inclusion
Last week, the Consumer Financial Protection announced the membership of the newly created Taskforce on Federal Consumer Financial Law, which will work to “harmonize and…
News Release
CEI Board Member Todd Zywicki to Head CFPB Task Force on Consumer Financial Law
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) today announced that Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) board member and George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law Todd Zywicki…
Blog
Don’t Just “Modernize” Community Reinvestment Act, Repeal It
On Thursday, financial regulators released a long-awaited reform proposal which would make substantial changes to the implementation and enforcement of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA).
NewsMax
CFPB Litigation Won’t Help Student Borrowers
The efforts of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Kathy Kraninger have gone a long way in reversing egregious Obama-era actions that plagued the agency,…
Blog
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Should End Frivolous Student Loan Lawsuit
The efforts of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Kathy Kraninger have gone a long way in reversing egregious Obama-era actions that plagued the agency,…
The Washington Times
Congress Can Fix Legal Marijuana Business Banking Problem
Violent and property crime rates have decreased over the past 25 years, so it’s telling that instances of robbery or burglary against one sort of…
NewsMax
CFPB’s Kraninger Catching Flak—and Hitting Her Targets
An anonymous World War II bomber pilot may be the source of the saying, “If you’re not catching flak, you’re not hitting your target.” But today, the…
Blog
Celebrate Consumer Finance Law Modernization
Earlier this month, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it will create a taskforce to “harmonize and modernize federal consumer financial laws.” The Taskforce…
Blog
In Praise of Pro-Consumer Tenure of Finance Regulator Kraninger
As she prepares to give her semi-annual testimony to Congress this week—on Wednesday to the House Financial Services Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and on Thursday…
News Release
House Bill Aims to Free Legalized Marijuana Businesses’ Access to Credit, Banking
Competitive Enterprise Institute Policy Analyst Matthew Adams praised today’s passage of the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act (SAFE Banking Act, H.R. 1595.) The SAFE…