In what is likely to be a regular occurrence over the months and years ahead, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, recently weighed in through an agency rulemaking on acceptable practices and consumer protection standards for a consumer financial product or service. The specific product in this instance is...

As the CFPB continues the process of ramping up its supervisory operations and consumer protection programs, emerging is a unique brand of consumer complaint supervision highlighting the special emphasis and approach in how the CFPB is pursuing its consumer financial protection mission. This was recently highlighted in separate initiatives of...

The U.S. banking industry is entering a particularly volatile period in our nation's economic history that is rapidly reshaping the industry, the demographics of financial services providers, and the way that financial products and services are delivered and consumed. Most obvious is a wave of mergers, acquisitions and continual attrition...

Recently, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released Version 1.0 of its Supervision and Examination Manual. The Manual represents perhaps the single most important document that will be issued by the new CFPB. In many respects, the Manual is the roadmap for how, when, where and why the CFPB will...

This week the Federal Banking Agencies and the Securities and Exchange Commission issued an interagency proposal representing the first step toward finalizing a rule to implement the Dodd-Frank Act's so-called "Volcker Rule." The Volcker Rule generally restricts the ability of banks to engage in proprietary trading (i.e., trading for their...

Whether in matters of the heart, business, politics or the economy, the key to all successful relationships is confidence. While it may seem a bit of a truism, let's consider that any strong and stable relationship always experiences elements of uncertainty, stress and sometimes distress; the successful ones pull through...

The federal government's efforts to avert a cataclysmic failure of the financial markets in the fall of 2008 formed the basis for intense drama -- in real life and on the big screen -- and served as the catalyst for a host of provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act. One of...

Three years ago this month, the true depth of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression was becoming apparent following the acquisition, collapse and/or federal intervention to prop up of several of the largest financial firms in the U.S., some of which had been around since before the Great...

Last week, Richard Cordray, the current head of enforcement of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, testified before the Senate Banking Committee in a crucial first step to obtain confirmation as the agency's first director. As expected, Senate Republicans, while not objecting to Cordray, continue to...