KQED’s My Life Is True series (a radio station backed by NPR) has posted a real-life payday customer experience who says he was stuck in a cycle of debt.

We want to let consumers know that by doing business with a CFSA Member they are protected by our association’s Best Practices. Customers who cannot pay back their loans when they are due have the option of entering into an extended payment plan, allowing them to repay their loans over a period of additional weeks. This option is provided to customers for any reason and at no additional cost to the borrower. This is the only financial product that allows consumers to create their own terms should they not be able to pay back their obligation in time of the original agreement. We hope that more customers will do business with CFSA Members, and also know that they have the right to let us know when CFSA Members are not complying with the association’s Best Practices. You can do that by going here and filling out an online complaint form. If you’re a customer and have questions, e-mail us at LoanQuestions@CFSAA.com.

U.S. regulators are still feeling the fallout from the D.C. Circuit Court ruling from late last month, scrambling to bulletproof dozens of financial reforms.

The ruling sent shivers down the spines of the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and has them bracing for more court challenges as they strain to complete well over 100 rules called for in Dodd-Frank that was enacted last year.

“I was afraid of this all along,” said Jill Sommers, a Republican commissioner at the CFTC. “The SEC had a rule that was challenged on grounds that I think there are concerns in our rules about, and I feel like we could equally have the same kind of challenges.”

Scott O’Malia, the other Republican CFTC commissioner, says he is going to call for a briefing with agency staff to review the ruling and assess the agency’s vulnerabilities.

“I just don’t want to make any mistakes that set us back,” O’Malia said. “It’s a very serious concern.”

Could Obama miss seeing a CFPB director appointment during his first-term in office? Some think that the Cordray confirmation could be drawn out for weeks, if not months.

“This situation will continue until 2013,” said Mark Calabria, a former Republican staffer on the Senate Banking Committee who is now director of financial regulation studies at the Cato Institute. “Republicans are unlikely to support anyone until all three of their changes are made. Just keeping the agency around is viewed as a major compromise.”

Calabria is referring to the structural changes that GOP leaders are calling for before they confirm anyone to lead the new consumer agency.

A recent Wall Street Journal article is reporting that some small and regional U.S. banks are prohibiting unhappy customers from taking their complaints to court or joining class-action lawsuits. Instead, financial institutions are requiring them to resolve disputes through arbitration, a process that may not be in the best interest of consumers. A few key highlights from the article:

The Dodd-Frank financial-overhaul law requires the newly formed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to examine mandatory-arbitration agreements, but doesn’t set a specific time frame for the agency to do so.

“We need more scrutiny over these things and make sure they are fair to consumers,” said Susan Weinstock, a project director at Pew.

…

“What the banks have done with these arbitration programs is buy themselves immunity with respect to complaints about their consumer practices,” said Bruce Rogow, a lawyer at Alters Boldt Brown Rash & Culmo in Miami, which is involved in the overdraft cases.

All of this comes on the heals of the CFPB launching its online credit card complaint form when the Bureau stood up July 21, and the mystery that still remains regarding how consumers will file complaints about other financial products.

When it comes to the payday advance, and CFSA Members, we want to make sure customers have a way to communicate with our Member Companies. You can either click here to fill out our complaint form, or send us an e-mail at LoanQuestions@CFSAA.com. Please note that our complaint form only applies to CFSA Member Companies.

According to American Banker, The U. S. Court of Appeals for D.C. Circuit Court ruled July 22 that the Securities and Exchange Commission did not properly conduct a cost-benefit analysis before finalizing a proxy rule required by the regulatory reform law.

So what does this mean for all other agencies? Well, they could be next.

The decision serves as a stark warning for all federal regulators tasked with writing the myriad of regulations under Dodd-Frank, and gives the industry and others more leeway to challenge new rules in court.

…

“The entire Dodd-Frank implementation is at heavy risk because if any of these rules are challenged by the courts, they won’t survive,” said Hal Scott, Nomura Professor and Director of the Program on International Financial Systems at Harvard Law School.

With the Congress taking its August recess a bit earlier than expected, the Senate Banking Committee hearing (originally scheduled for this Thursday) for CFPB Director nominee Richard Cordray has been pushed back to September 6.

Is that the Cordray Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday is getting postponed. Still waiting for it to hit the wire. Will post something once it surfaces.

Many have been wondering who Richard Cordray is? While unknown to the everyday consumer, much of Wall Street and the mortgage industry has been familiar with his name for quite some time.

MSNBC’s Red Tape offers a more in-depth perspective on the nominee President Obama has picked to run the CFPB.

“He is as authentic as you can get.  He’s the same person when the cameras are on or when he’s with his family,” said Kimberly Kowalski, a former press aide for Cordray. “Sometimes it works to his detriment. He would just say what was in his heart, even if I’d prepared remarks for him … but Rich is all for that man on the street. If he meets someone and they tell him a problem, he remembers it, and he acts on it, and three months later, he’ll check to make sure it got fixed. Things never fall off his radar.”

The Senate Banking Committee has announced it will hold a nomination hearing on Thursday August 4 at 2 pm for former Ohio Attorney General Rich Cordray to head the CFPB.