Compliance Blog

Written by Bernadette Clair, Regulatory Compliance Counsel

The CFPB has announced the beginning of its inquiry into arbitration clauses.  You can find the CFPB’s press release here. 

Why arbitration agreements? Section 1028(a) of Dodd-Frank requires the CFPB to study arbitration agreements.  From Dodd-Frank:

“SEC. 1028. AUTHORITY TO RESTRICT MANDATORY PRE-DISPUTE ARBITRATION.

(a) STUDY AND REPORT.—The Bureau shall conduct a study of, and shall provide a report to Congress concerning, the use of agreements providing for arbitration of any future dispute between covered persons and consumers in connection with the offering or providing of consumer financial products or services.”

As a preliminary step, the CFPB issued a notice and request for information last week.  At this point, the CFPB is not asking how it might exercise rulemaking authority over arbitration agreements, or even whether it should regulate in this area.  Rather, the CFPB is looking for information from the public that will help define the scope of its study, as well as appropriate methods and sources of data for conducting the study.

Questions in the CFPB’s request for information focus on:

• The prevalence of arbitration clauses in consumer financial products and services;
• What claims consumers bring in arbitration against financial services companies;
• If claims are brought by financial services companies against consumers in arbitration;
• How consumers and companies are affected by actual arbitrations; and
• How consumers and companies are affected by arbitration clauses outside of actual arbitrations.

The comment deadline is June 23, 2012.

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NCUA Posts Economic Update on YouTube.  Last week, NCUA posted an economic update video on YouTube.  This latest video discusses the current economy and its likely impact on credit unions, and provides credit unions with information about accessing economic data on NCUA’s website.  NCUA’s press release on the economic update is here.

If you haven’t checked out NCUA’s YouTube channel before, you can find it here.