Recent Projects – CFPB

In January 2025, CFPB issued a finding of no significant impact and accompanying environmental assessment (EA) regarding the CFPB’s consideration of a proposed rule to implement a Congressional mandate to establish consumer protections for residential Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing. In the EA, CFPB cited values for the social cost of greenhouse gases (SC-GHG) from the calculator on Policy Integrity’s Cost of Carbon Website.

CFPB recently finalized its overdraft credit rule, which closes a loophole that allowed banks to charge exorbitant overdraft fees to consumers without providing the types of disclosure usually required for consumer credit. Together with a fantastic team of clinic students, we submitted comments on the Proposed Rule, offering suggestions for how CFPB could strengthen its economic analysis. The rule's analysis generally aligns with our recommendations, with one section mirroring one of our arguments quite closely.

In February, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed a rule that would regulate overdraft lending by very large financial institutions. Overdraft fees amount to billions of dollars a year, and those costs are disproportionately borne by low-income households. The Proposed Rule would narrow regulatory exemptions that previously enabled banks extending overdraft credit to avoid complying with the regulatory requirements otherwise imposed on credit products. The Proposed Rule reflects a well-reasoned approach to correct market failures in the overdraft credit market, mitigating harms to consumers. We submitted comments suggesting how CFPB should improve its analysis. 

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is proposing to repeal a rule that protects borrowers from exploitative payday lending practices. We submitted comments focusing on CFPB’s failure to provide a reasoned explanation for reversing key legal and economic conclusions of the rule.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is currently developing regulations that could protect millions of lower-income Americans from predatory payday lenders. We submitted public comments on the agency’s regulatory approach.