Richard Cordray, Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has positioned himself as the Boogeyman that financial companies fear this Halloween season.  Earlier this month, the CFPB outlined the proposals under consideration for regulating arbitration in the consumer financial industry.  The proposals address the availability of class actions — as was widely expected — but

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released an “Arbitration Study” exceeding 700 pages to Congress this week.  You have likely heard the headlines – most commentators assume that the CFPB will use the study to support an effort to restrict or regulate the use of “pre-dispute” arbitration in financial transactions.  But, let’s not get ahead of

The Fourth Circuit found this week that the Dodd-Frank Act did not override all arbitration agreements betwen publicly-traded employers and their employees.  Santoro v. Accenture Federal Servs., LLC, 2014 WL 1759072 (4th Cir. May 5, 2014).  Instead, “where the plaintiff is not pursuing Dodd-Frank whistleblower claims, neither [section of the Dodd-Frank Act] overrides the

Just a few months after its first Director took office in January of 2012, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is embarking on a study of arbitration.  The CFPB announced on April 24 that it invites the public to send information about “how consumers and financial services companies are affected by arbitration and arbitration clauses,” so