New Institute for Consumer Financial Choice Seeks to Reshape the Consumer Finance Policy Debate

**Alan Kaplinsky** (0:07)
Welcome to the award-winning Consumer Finance Monitor podcast, where we explore important new developments in the world of consumer financial services, and what they mean for your business, your customers, and the industry. This is a weekly show brought to you by the Consumer Financial Services Group at the Ballard Spahr Law Firm. And I'm your host, Alan Kaplinsky, the founder and former practice group leader for 25 years, and now Senior Counsel of the Consumer Financial Services Group at Ballard Spahr. And I'll be moderating today's program. For those of you who want even more information, don't forget about our blog, which also goes under the same name as our podcast show, namely Consumer Finance Monitor. We've hosted our blog since 2011 when the CFPB became operational. So there is a lot of relevant industry content there. We also regularly host webinars on subjects of interest to those in the consumer finance industry. So to subscribe to our blog or get on the list for our webinars, please visit us at ballardspahr.com.
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Today's episode focuses on an important new initiative that we recently highlighted on our blog, Consumer Finance Monitor. We wrote the blog on April 4th of this year. That is the launch of the Institute for Consumer Financial Choice, or as we may refer to it throughout the remainder of our podcast show today, the ICFC. This new Institute aims to bring rigorous empirical research and thoughtful policy analysis to some of the most pressing issues in the consumer finance industry, with a particular emphasis on promoting consumer choice, innovation and well-functioning markets. The ICFC formally kicked off its work with a joint launch program on May 14th and 15th, hosted at George Mason University, Antonin Scalia Law School. This event, held in collaboration with the Federal Trade Commission, signaled the Institute's commitment to engaging directly with policymakers and regulators from the outset. The event's first day, which was led by the FTC, featured opening remarks from Christopher Mafarich, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, as well as our two featured guests today, who I'm about to give a proper introduction to, ICFC co-directors Todd Zywicki and Tom Miller. It also included two panel discussions that focused on innovations in the financial services marketplace, and on the implications for consumers, businesses, and regulators of new products and tech applications.
Second day was led by the ICFC in a featured three panel discussions focused on the findings of a report from the CFPB Task Force on Federal Consumer Financial Law. This task force released a report in 2021 with extensive recommendations on how to improve consumer protection in the financial marketplace.
I'm sure we're going to get into some detail about that in a few minutes. Let me without further ado properly introduce the two individuals who are playing the leading roles in this effort to create the Institute. Both of them have been guests on our podcast show on multiple occasions. First of all, Todd Zywicki, who is a George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law and co-founder and co-director of the Institute. Todd is very well known to our audience and indeed the entire consumer finance industry. And as I indicated, he previously chaired the CFPB's Task Force on Federal Consumer Financial Law. He's written very extensively on consumer credit regulation and market competition. So Todd, a very warm welcome to you.

**Todd Zywicki** (5:22)
Thanks, Alan. It's always great to be with you here.

**Alan Kaplinsky** (5:25)
Okay. And also joining us today is Tom Miller.
Tom is a Professor of Finance at Mississippi State University and a leading empirical researcher on consumer credit markets, particularly small dollar lending and financial inclusion. And I might say a very accomplished tenor saxophone player. So that, Tom, a very warm welcome to you.

**Tom Miller** (5:57)
Thank you, Alan. It's always a pleasure to be talking to you and on the show.

**Alan Kaplinsky** (6:02)
Thank you. Okay. So we're going to start out with some easy softball questions for both. And either one of you can answer and feel free to chime in at any time, because I like to keep our podcast show very conversational and informal. So let me start at a high level. What prompted the creation of the Institute for Consumer Financial Choice?
And what gap are you trying to fill in the current policy and academic landscape?

**Todd Zywicki** (6:36)
I'll jump in with that one first, Alan. This is something that Tom and I have talked about for a while, which is coming up with a new way of thinking about consumer financial protection, right? In many ways, we are still trapped in sort of 1970s naderite mindset.