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People can switch banks easier under new government rule

The rule aims to encourage "open banking"

By Dieter Holger of ConsumerAffairs

October 22, 2024

A new regulation is setting protections aroundpersonal financial informationand making it easier to leave banks.

The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Tuesday it finalized its Personal Financial Data Rights Rule, establishing tougherdata protections and requiringbanks to transfer financial information upon a customer's request to a competitor or other third party for free.

That transferrable personal financial data includes information on transactions, account balances, sending payments, upcoming bills and basic account verification, the CFPB said.

Largefinancial businesses have until April 2026 to obey the new rule, while the smallest have until April 2030. The CFPB sues, fines and bans financial businesses it finds violating its rules.

A move to "open banking"

The rule is part of a push for an"open banking" system in the U.S., the CFPB said, where it is easier for customers to switch banks after shoppingaround for better service,interest rates and credit offers.

Around 13% of customerssaid they planned to switch to a different bank in 2024, according to a survey by research firm J.D. Power.

The CFPB said aneasier exchange of information will boost competition andhelp peoplebuild credit and get loans.

Too many Americans are stuck in financial products with lousy rates and service, CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said.

More control and protection of personal financial data

The rule also sets rights against data collectionand rights forhavinginformation deleted.

Stricter data use: Financial businesses can only collect, use and keep data to deliver the product the customer requested. For example, some lenders use customer data to advertise loans. "The rule does not prohibit any particular uses of data, but it requires that all use be driven by what is necessary to deliver the product sought by the consumer," the CFPB said.
Simpler data deletion:Within one year, financial businesses have to stop accessing and delete personal financial data after their customer revokes access. "The process to revoke access must be simple and straightforward," the CFPB said.

The CFPB's widening reach

The new rule has been a long timein the works.

The Personal Financial Data Rights Rule "is part of the CFPBs efforts to finally activate" the power that Congress granted the government agencyin 2010, the regulator said.

In June, the CFPB said it finalized a separate rule to recognize the agencyas an "industry standard setting body," meaning it will issue guidelines for companies to follow in meeting its rules on personal financial information.

Wed, 23 Oct 2024 21:53:05 +0000

Problem gambling grows along with revenue, a Massachusetts study finds

From 2% to 25.6%

The study was the latest of three and while it can't be applied to the overall population, it paintsa picture of changing behaviors and attitudes over time among regular gamblers, defined as those who gamble monthly or more frequently.

Among monthly gamblers in the online surveys, those experiencing gambling problems jumped from 12.7% in 2014 to 20.9% in 2022 to 25.6% in 2023.This compares to a 2% prevalence of problem gambling that held steady in general population surveys conducted before and after casinos were introduced in Massachusetts.

Its pretty startling, to be honest, said Rachel Volberg, principal investigator for the study.While the online panels were not representative of the population, they were very informative in regards to people with gambling difficulties. Its very helpful from a surveillance and monitoring perspective.

The survey found increases among monthly gamblers in the online panels in lottery games, sports betting, private wagering, horse racing, bingo and online gambling.

This suggests the impact of the pandemic, which deterred gambling behavior, may be diminishing, Volberg says and also that the pandemic probably suppressed the gambling behavior of people who were gambling recreationally more than the behavior of people who were at risk for a gambling problem.

Sports betting was still new

The latest of the three online surveys was carried out shortly after sports betting began in Massachusetts. According to the online surveys, monthlygamblers who said they did not participate in sports betting in the previous 12 months dropped from 78.2% in 2014 to 45.7% in 2023, the year that legal sports betting became fully operational in Massachusetts.

In 2023, 28.3% of monthly gamblers said they did sports betting at least weekly, up from 18.8% in 2022 and 7% in 2013.

Volberg thinksthat the spate of advertising and news coverage of the legalization of sports betting in Massachusetts may have affected some monthly gamblers in a negative way.

I think it has led people who are already vulnerable to engage or re-engage with this particular type of gambling thats now getting lots of media attention, she says.

More think it's harmful

The latest online survey also showed increases in the proportion of monthly gamblers who believe both that the harm of gambling outweighs the benefits and that gambling addiction is the most important negative impact of casinos. There was a decline in the proportion who believe that employment is the most important positive impact of casinos and that all types of gambling should be legal.

Based on the general population survey that was done in 2021, I didnt expect that we would see a big change in attitudes toward gambling, but we do seem to be seeing that, especially among the people betting on sports, Volberg says.

Volberg says that while online panels are not representative of the population, it is reasonable to assume that the changes in behavior and attitudes of the monthly gamblers in the online panels are likely to reflect changes in how monthly gamblers in the general population might be behaving.

I think its definitely a cause for concern about what the population impacts of sports betting are going to be because these indicators from the monthly gamblers in the online panel are not going in a direction that says theres going to be less gambling harm in Massachusetts in the future, Volberg said.

Thu, 07 Nov 2024 20:20:17 +0000

Student loan borrowers got tricked by Ejudicate. Now it's banned from arbitration

Firm had hidden conflicts of interest, regulators charged

By Dieter Holger of ConsumerAffairs

October 10, 2024

A regulatorhas banned Ejudicate from providing arbitration for financial products because it deceived student loan borrowers about its neutrality and held rigged arbitration proceedings.

Ejudicate ran bogus arbitration proceedings, deceived borrowers, and hid its financial conflicts of interest, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ChiefRohit Chopra said.

In April 2022, Ejudicate, which runs an online dispute resolution platform,started arbitration proceedings against student loan borrowers who allegedly defaulted on loans from Prehired, a company that offered vocational training and "income share" loans that regulators shut down due to its deceptive debt-collection practices,the CFPBsaid Thursday.

The CFPB said Ejudicate lied about being a neutral arbitrator when it was getting money from Prehired, attempted to bind borrowers with terms in rigged proceedings and started arbitration without consent.

The CFPB also fined Ejudicate only $1 because the company is unable to pay more.

Thu, 10 Oct 2024 20:05:10 +0000

Supply chain experts expect ports to return to normal soon

Consumers should feel little, if any impact from the three-day strike

By Mark Huffman

of ConsumerAffairs

October 7, 2024

The three-day strike by the International Longshoremens Association (ILA) might seem like a non-event, but supply chain experts say it will take a little time for operations at East Coast and Gulf Coast ports to return to normal.

That said, the U.S. economy dodged a very big bullet when the ILA agreed to a 62% pay increase over six years and then agreed to table negotiations over automation until January 15. A prolonged strike shutting down 36 U.S. ports would have halted most imports and exports, creating shortages and higher prices.

According to the Association for Supply Chain Management, the general rule for a work stoppage is that it takes five days to recover for every day that a port is shut down. Consumers should not be impacted because of the preparations major retailers took in advance of the strike, increasing their imports in anticipation of what was expected to be a lengthy strike.

It may be a little early to say everything is completely back to normal, however, we are quickly heading in that direction, Mike Klage, vice president at NTG Supply Chain Solutions, told ConsumerAffairs.

Most ports are reporting a faster recovery than the expected a week for every day. Looking at vessel berthing schedules in Houston for mid-October for example, we are seeing vessels scheduled to work on or before their original ETA, indicating the port expects to have worked through any backlog by the end of this week.

Klage says there could be some residual congestion landside as draymen and warehouses handle a couple of weeks of volume in a condensed period, but any delays should be brief.

Had the strike become prolonged, and vessels started offloading containers en masse at non-US ports, I believe the week for every day concept likely would have been more accurate, so the short duration really helped schedules from getting too far off course.

Mon, 07 Oct 2024 17:40:35 +0000

Consumers should prepare for shortages and higher prices, experts say

A threatened strike against 36 U.S. ports appears imminent

By Mark Huffman

of ConsumerAffairs

September 30, 2024

Updated 6:58 am Oct. 1, 2024

Dockworkers went on strike at 12:01 today and began walking picket lines at East Coast and Gulf Coast ports.

Just as inflation has started to cool, it could flame up again in October and theres not a thing the Federal Reserve can do about it.

The International Longshoremens Association (ILA) is poised to go on strike Tuesday, Oct. 1, shutting down 36 East Coast and Gulf Coast ports from New York to Houston, stopping imported goods from coming in and U.S. exports from going out. According to the union, talks with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) have produced no progress.

A strike against these ports would be the first since 1977. However, the U.S. economy has changed greatly since then. In 1977, there were still many U.S. factories and the economy was much less reliant on imports.

A strike would lead to shortages and shortages usually result in higher prices, causing more pain for inflation-weary consumers.

Learning from past experience

Many importers, who learned from past strikes have been rerouting containers via the West Coast in preparation for this, but as the East Coast ports can reach a higher proportion of the U.S. population relative to the West Coast, a four-week or longer port strike could be devastating, James Vanderloo, a supply chain expert with OEC Group, told ConsumerAffairs.

Each day of a strike, the congestion at ports compounds, which takes months to recover. If retail goods are not on the shelves in time for the holidays, it could result in billions of lost revenues which would affect small businesses disproportionately.

Consumers will first notice shortages of perishable products. A lot of seafood is now imported so there could be a lot less fish from Iceland and Ecuador. Fruit, especially bananas, would also be harder to find at supermarkets.

Beyond that, a new computer might be harder to find. Many of those products, as well as essential electronic parts, come from Asia.

New car shortages

Consumers could also see new car and truck shortages, perhaps worse than those experienced during the pandemic. Baltimore is the number one U.S. port for auto imports. New imports could be blocked from dealer showrooms and domestic automakers could face a shortage of parts. And that could idle U.S. car manufacturing plants, resulting in layoffs.

It takes only one part from one supplier running short on inventory to bring an OEM line down, said Mike Klage, vice president of NTG Supply Chain Solutions. Air freight will certainly become a major alternative, especially on European lanes where alternative ocean routings are limited. However, this cannot solve every shortage, particularly if a strike extends from days into weeks.

Vandeloo notes there is a political aspect to this threatened labor dispute because of its timing, and the impact it could have on an economy trying to achieve a soft landing from post-pandemic inflation.

Having this occur during an election year further compounds the stress of the situation since both parties would look to finger-point and have this become an issue that could sway certain voters and generate additional strain on the economy, he said.

While West Coast ports would remain open to imports, both Vanderloo and Klage say they would have difficulty handling all of the blocked import traffic. Additionally, the cost of moving those imports from the West Coast to the Eastern U.S. would add to inflationary pressures.

Tue, 01 Oct 2024 14:42:52 +0000

About Consumernewsline - Consumernewsline

People can switch banks easier under new government rule

The rule aims to encourage "open banking"

A move to "open banking"

More control and protection of personal financial data

The CFPB's widening reach

Problem gambling grows along with revenue, a Massachusetts study finds

More people report they are having problems controlling their gambling

From 2% to 25.6%

Sports betting was still new

More think it's harmful

Student loan borrowers got tricked by Ejudicate. Now it's banned from arbitration

Firm had hidden conflicts of interest, regulators charged

Supply chain experts expect ports to return to normal soon

Consumers should feel little, if any impact from the three-day strike

Consumers should prepare for shortages and higher prices, experts say

A threatened strike against 36 U.S. ports appears imminent

Learning from past experience

New car shortages

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