The CFPB had a good 2013

Robert McKinley over at CardTrak published an excellent run-down of all the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's victories over the last year. A few choice highlights:

GE Capital Retail Bank and its subsidiary, CareCredit are ordered in December to refund up to $34.1 million by the CFPB to potentially more than 1 million consumers who were victims of deceptive credit card enrollment tactics. At doctors’ and dentists’ offices around the country, consumers were signed up for CareCredit credit cards they thought were interest free, but were actually accruing interest that kicked in if the full balance was not paid at the end of a promotional period.

American Express was ordered in December by the CFPB to refund an estimated $59.5 million to more than 335,000 consumers for illegal credit card practices. These practices included unfair billing tactics and deceptive marketing with respect to credit card “add-on products” such as payment protection and credit monitoring. American Express also agreed to pay an additional $9.6 million in civil penalties to the CFPB.

In November the CFPB took its first enforcement action against a payday lender by ordering Cash America to refund consumers for robo-signing court documents in debt collection lawsuits. The CFPB also found that Cash America – one of the largest short-term, small-dollar lenders in the country – violated the Military Lending Act by illegally overcharging servicemembers and their families. Cash America will pay up to $14 million in refunds to consumers and it will pay a $5 million fine for these violations and for destroying records in advance of the CFPB's examination.

The CFPB in October levied an enforcement action against Meracord  a major debt-settlement payment processor, for allegedly helping others to collect millions of dollars in illegal upfront fees from consumers. The CFPB asked a federal district court to approve a consent order that would require Meracord and its CEO and owner, Linda Remsberg, to halt all illegal activities and to pay a $1.376 million civil penalty.

The CFPB ordered Chase Bank in early October to refund an estimated $309 million to more than 2.1 million customers for illegal credit card practices. This enforcement action is the result of work started by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which the CFPB joined last year. The agencies found that Chase engaged in unfair billing practices for certain credit card “add-on products” by charging consumers for credit monitoring services that they did not receive.

The CFPB in May filed a complaint in a federal district court against a Florida debt-relief company that misled consumers across the country and charged illegal fees for their services. The Bureau plans to submit a proposed consent order that, if approved by the court, would halt the company’s operation, prevent the company and owner from providing debt-relief services in the future, and impose a $15,000 civil penalty fine. A CFPB investigation found that American Debt Settlement Solutions and its owner Michael DiPanni routinely charged consumers illegal upfront fees for debt-relief services that rarely, if ever, materialized. In total, the CFPB believes that in the course of their illegal conduct, the defendants charged approximately $500,000 in fees to hundreds of consumers in multiple states. The proposed consent order would award a judgment against the company of approximately $500,000, which would be suspended based on the company’s inability to pay.