Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

WASHINGTON - The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is launching a database that tracks which large banks have had the most complaints about their credit cards and how they were resolved - information some industry trade groups don't want made public. The goal of the searchable database is to provide more information to consumers, businesses and advocacy groups about an important financial product, said Richard Cordray, the agency's director. It will be limited at first to credit card complaints received since June 1 for banks with more than $10 billion in assets.

It must be hard for the banking industry, which revels in indecipherable communication with customers, to actually be spoken to in plain English. It must be equally hard to be told that the industry's greedy, self-interested business practices reward recklessness at the expense of sound money management. So props to Raj Date, deputy director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, who stepped before the American Bankers Assn. this week to explain why those in the audience were screwing up their own companies, the business world in general and the broader U.S. economy.

WASHINGTON -- Most senators went easy on Chief Executive Jamie Dimon during his first trip to Capitol Hill to answer questions about JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s huge trading loss. But Elizabeth Warren has been relentlessly criticizing Dimon in hopes of boosting her Senate campaign in Massachusetts and grabbing a seat on the dais at future hearings involving Wall Street executives. “If there is one thing we learned at [Wednesday's] hearing, it's that Wall Street still doesn't get it," Warren said in an email her campaign blasted out not long after Dimon wrapped up his appearance before the Senate Banking Committee.

WASHINGTON — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is considering new rules on mortgage fees, including banning origination charges based on the size of the loan. The agency, which said the new rules would make it easier for potential home buyers to understand and compare mortgages, also is proposing that brokers and loan officers undergo criminal background checks and go through special training. The preliminary proposals, unveiled Wednesday, also would prohibit incentives to steer consumers into higher priced loans.

Does the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have the power to trump theU.S. Supreme Court? That's the intriguing question raised by a seemingly routine announcement last week that the watchdog agency is seeking public comments on "how consumers and financial services companies are affected by arbitration and arbitration clauses. " "Arbitration clauses are found in many contracts for consumer financial products," the bureau's director, Richard Cordray, said in a statement.

WASHINGTON -- The government's new consumer watchdog is launching an inquiry into the use of arbitration clauses in financial contracts, which keep disputes over credit cards and other products out of the court system. Consumer advocates long have complained that so-called "pre-dispute arbitration clauses" gave too much of an advantage to financial firms over average Americans, who often don't realize they've signed away their right to sue. But companies said third-party arbitration is fair and saves money because it's faster and less-expensive than going to court.

WASHINGTON -- The head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau acknowledged there is a slim chance his controversial recess appointment could be overturned, according to an email obtained by a government watchdog group. "There is a chance (a minor chance in my view, though everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion) that the appointment would be invalidated by a court," Richard Cordray wrote to the agency's staff in a Feb. 6 email titled "Weekly Message. " The email came a little more than a month after President Obama installed Cordray as director with a recess appointment.

Lenders who discriminate on the basis of certain demographics when dealing with auto loans, mortgages, credit cards, student loans and more are now in the cross hairs of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The watchdog declared war Wednesday against unfair lending practices that price out, reject or otherwise put certain consumers at a disadvantage. Even lenders who don't intend to be biased but whose policies end up cutting off certain portions of the population - known as disparate impact - will be taken down, bureau officials said.

The Obama administration's consumer financial watchdog wants to undo a limit on some upfront fees on credit cards, prompting criticism that it could hurt borrowers with poor credit. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is backing away from restrictions on what the industry calls fee-harvester cards. Issuers of these cards make such customers pay a large fee before they can receive cards with very low credit lines. The agency indicated that its decision stemmed from a court ruling saying the fee cap appeared to be barred by "plain and unambiguous" language in the applicable law. Lobbyists and the public have until June 11 to file comments or objections before a final decision is made.