Consumer Law

Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Attributes Crisis in Part to Consumer Protection Failures

By Jeff Sovern

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Report is now available.  I haven't had time to read it completely, but based on a quick look it seems to attribute the crisis in part to failures of consumer protection.  For example, here's a quote from page 101:

Regulators failed to rein in risky home mortgage lending. In particular, the Federal Reserve failed to meet its statutory obligation to establish and maintain prudent mortgage lending standards and to protect against predatory lending.

?And from page 126:

?

Not only did the federal banking supervisors fail to rein in risky mortgage lending practices, but the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision preempted the applicability of state laws and regulatory efforts to national banks and thrifts, thus preventing adequate protection for borrowers and weakening constraints on this segment of the mortgage market.

Full post as published by CL&P Blog on January 27, 2011 (boomark / email).