Kate Berry has covered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for American Banker since 2016. She joined the publication in 2006 covering mortgage lending and the financial crisis. Berry also has covered big banks including Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo. She has won five awards from the Society of American Business Writers and Editors, and has worked at several news organizations including the Orange County Register, the Los Angeles Business Journal and the Associated Press. Berry began her career as a clerk at the New York Times.
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Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra pushed back aggressively against allegations by Senate Republicans at a congressional hearing Tuesday that he helped orchestrate a “hostile takeover” of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
April 26 -
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will conduct supervisory exams of nonbank fintech companies that pose risks to consumers as Director Rohit Chopra seeks to level the regulatory playing field with supervised banks.
April 25 -
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the New York attorney general sued the wire giant for failing to transfer funds, delaying refunds to customers and repeatedly ignoring rules around money transfers.
April 21 -
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has the legal authority to adjust maximum late fees that issuers may charge. The Consumer Bankers Association predicts the agency will reduce the limits as part of its crackdown on "junk fees" and to soften the impact of inflation on cardholders.
April 13 -
Bank-issued prepaid benefits cards were supposed to help state governments deliver these funds more efficiently. But the pandemic scrambled the economics of these programs.
April 7 -
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said in a report that by driving customers to roll over their loans repeatedly, rather than availing themselves of a cheaper option, the payday industry may be deceiving borrowers.
April 6 -
The core function of the Federal Home Loan Bank System — advances to member institutions — plummeted 20% last year to $350 billion, its lowest level in 15 years. That erosion of purpose is emboldening critics, who say the Home Loan banks need to change or face irrelevance.
April 4 -
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said it expects credit card companies to increase fees — often around $30 — charged when customer miss a payment. The higher prices are allowed under rules that authorize inflation adjustments.
March 29 -
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will potentially be banning business practices, forcing the divestiture of business lines and working with state agencies to revoke licenses, Director Rohit Chopra said Monday. He called out five big banks by name for repeatedly crossing legal lines.
March 28 -
An appeals court is expected to rule by summer whether, as PayPal argues, digital wallets are excluded from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's fee disclosure rule for prepaid cards. If the CFPB loses, its ability to mandate disclosures on a range of financial products could be in jeopardy.
March 23 -
In an update to an exam manual, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says racial or other bias associated with a wide range of financial products — not just credit — is illegal and subject to CFPB enforcement actions.
March 18 -
CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said the bureau is concerned that the spike in car prices, due partly to the global chip shortage, could create incentives for servicers to illegally seize vehicles for their resale value.
February 28 -
Bank of America is under investigation in connection with its role as the administrator of a state program that was rife with fraud. The fiasco is one of several involving the prepaid card industry over the last 12 years.
February 27 -
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau took a step toward addressing appraisal bias with a proposal that kicked off an interagency rulemaking on automated valuation models, which use reams of data to assess property values.
February 25 -
The OCC and CFPB are investigating Bank of America for allegedly failing to protect tens of thousands of cardholders who reported fraud or were blocked from accessing their money at the height of the pandemic, according to sources familiar with the matter.
February 22 -
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is raising concerns about exclusive government contracts and the fees that recipients of public benefits get charged. “Barriers to choice kill competition and can harm families who need every dollar to make ends meet," said Director Rohit Chopra.
February 15 -
"In many cases, these are fees where there's not even a service provided or where the bank or financial institution doesn't even do any work,” Rohit Chopra of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Thursday in public remarks.
February 10 -
CFPB Director Rohit Chopra launched an inquiry into so-called “junk fees,” with bankers and lenders countering that the fees they charge are related to specific types of work performed and that existing laws already prohibit excessive fees.
February 6 -
Rohit Chopra, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has cautioned banks, credit unions and fintechs about fair-lending violations that may stem from reliance on artificial intelligence. His comments threaten to discourage financial firms from using the technology to crunch nontraditional data about borrowers, experts say.
January 31 -
The Federal Reserve, FDIC, OCC and CFPB — increasingly under the leadership of Democratic appointees — are gearing up to regulate cryptocurrency, modernize the Community Reinvestment Act and give consumers more control of their personal data. Here's a look at the policy changes they're mulling.
January 27
