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The Dodd-Frank Act (Dodd-Frank) was enacted following the 2007-2008 financial crisis as the result of calls in Washington to protect average Americans from the depredations of Wall Street. Specifically, proponents of Dodd-Frank pointed to greed, carried out through the business practices at large commercial and investment banks, as the cause of the financial crisis. Accordingly, Dodd-Frank sought to place the most stringent restrictions on the activities of large commercial and investment banks of any legislation since the Great Depression. However, the perception of rapacious business practices on Wall Street does not apply as directly to community banks. Situated somewhere between Main Street and Wall Street, community banks directly serve their immediate communities while, in many cases, simultaneously interacting and trading with large commercial and investment banks to make that possible. Community banks are included in the scope of certain new financial market regulations, explicitly excluded from others, and subject to discretionary regulation in others. This article seeks to describe the impact of Dodd-Frank and the inconsistency of the application of its regulations to community banks in the particular area of consumer protection, and how Dodd-Frank's creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) might affect community banks. This is accomplished by considering four issues: (i) the difficulty in defining a "community bank" and Dodd-Frank's employment of asset size to limit several of its provisions; (ii) the history of Dodd-Frank's enactment; (iii) the CFPB and its mandate as prescribed by Dodd-Frank; and (iv) the CFPB's effect on community banks and the regulatory risks faced by community banks as the CFPB is implemented. The article concludes that, due in part to the difference in goals and business models between large commercial banks and community banks, the CFPB and its proposed rules will likely impose both worsening uncertainty and significant costs on community banks, ultimately contributing to their decreased viability.

Consumer protection within a broader area of social responsibility and ethics in banking has recently been attracting increased interest of researchers and professionals. The global financial crisis, which started in 2007, has put consumer protection under great scrutiny by initiating changes in behavioural patterns both of banks and consumers. Besides being an ethical question, consumer protection is also an important social and political question, usually appearing together with excessive problems, significant for financial stability as well. The aim of this paper is to investigate problems in bank consumer protection in Croatia both from regulatory and from practical aspect, and planned solutions for detected problems, as well as to analyse examples found in developed countries. Qualitative methodology is applied in the research, based on in-depth interviews with subject matter experts. By studying practical solutions for consumer protection on a global level, particularly focusing on the USA and Western European countries, the paper proposes the best practice of consumer protection applicable in Croatia.

This paper examines the relationship between aggregate consumer spending and credit availability in the United States. The author finds that consumer spending falls (rises) in response to a reduction (increase) in credit availability. Moreover, she provides a formal assessment of the possibility that credit availability is particularly important for consumer spending when it undergoes large changes. In this respect, she estimates a consumption function in which only large expansions and contractions in credit affect spending. She concludes that large changes in credit availability are particularly important for consumers' spending decisions. As should be expected, these periods tend to be associated with periods of high economic uncertainty. These results show that credit availability should be taken into account when modeling and forecasting consumer spending. -- Credit and credit aggregates ; Domestic demand and components ; Recent economic and financial developments

This technical note is based on a mission conducted from April 24 to May 9, 2014 to Kingston and other parts of Jamaica. The mission also conducted a short mystery shopping exercise with the assistance of a representative from the national consumer's league. Valuable comments on the draft note were provided by the Bank of Jamaica and the Financial Services Commission. The technical note consists of findings, issues and recommendations, and four annexes: annex one, existing structure for prudential and consumer protection supervision; annex two, current and revised legislation affecting financial consumer protection; annex three, comparison to world bank good practices on financial consumer protection; and annex four, national program of consumer protection and financial literacy, implementation plan components. The key recommendations present targeted measures that can be immediately implemented and will have a positive (and measurable) impact on public confidence in formal financial institutions. The focus of the technical note is on deposit-taking institutions although some aspects of others parts of the financial sector have been included.