Current Industry News
What does the FTC’s new task force mean to data aggregators?
Should antitrust regulations govern how big tech companies collect large amounts of consumer data? That’s a question that’s been getting increased attention recently, with growing pressure from state regulators and legislators for antitrust action against big tech companies. While the U.S. still has a long debate ahead on this issue, European regulators have already been investigating, and in some cases fining, large tech companies for their data practices. Part of the debate in the U.S. centers on whether the control of big data is an antitrust issue, a consumer protection issue, or both. But there are indications that the FTC, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, and state regulators will not sit idly while the debate continues.
Payday lending industry gains upper hand in Statehouse fight
After years of fighting to lower the interest rates credit agencies can charge on subprime loans, consumer protection advocates thought they finally had a win lined up this legislative session. A bill that would have capped two-week “payday” loans of up to $605 at an annual percentage rate of 36 percent—compared with the 391 percent APR that can be charged now—passed an Indiana Senate committee and headed to the Senate floor for a vote in February. But supporters of the legislation—including Erin Macey, senior policy analyst for the Indiana Institute for Working Families, and Kathleen Lara, policy director for Prosperity Indiana—weren’t celebrating that day.
New study highlights just how bad Americans are with credit cards
A new study details how Americans manage credit cards and how stressful credit debt can be. Commissioned by Clever Real Estate and conducted by online polling software Pollfish, the report looked at 1,000 survey responses of Americans who owned at least one credit card. “The most shocking find to me was how many Americans carry credit card balances month to month,” Tommy O’Shaughnessy, an analyst at Clever Real Estate Analyst and the author of the report, told Yahoo Finance. Nearly half of the respondents (47%) carried some amount of credit card debt month to month, according to the survey, with 72% of borrowers carrying more than $1,000.
JPMorgan Chase is investing $350 million to get workers ready for the future
New York (CNN Business)JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon talks a lot about the need to train workers for the jobs of the future. Now the bank says it will spend $350 million over the next five years to make it happen. The company, which previously made a $250 million five-year commitment to job training in 2013, said Monday it will invest in a variety of initiatives, including a development program for community college presidents and new research.