Banking & Credit

Public Interest Organizations File Comments to the CFPB on Telephone Survey Exploring Credit Card Dispute Resolutions

CFA and other public interest organizations offer comments concerning the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (Bureau) proposed national telephone survey of 1,000 credit card holders as part of its study of predispute binding mandatory (or forced) arbitration, required under Section 1028(a) of the DoddFrank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Our organizations have long known and demonstrated through published studies and reports that pre-dispute binding mandatory (or forced) arbitration clauses in consumer and employment contracts are unfair, and that most consumers and employees are unaware of the existence and impact of the clauses. Nevertheless, we strongly support the CFPB’s study of the use of forced arbitration in contracts for consumer financial services and products, and more specifically its investigation of consumers’ awareness of, and perceptions relating to forced arbitration. We anticipate that the findings should lead the Bureau to promulgate rulemaking to ban forced arbitration in contracts for consumer financial services and products.