Contents and Its Implications of U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) s 2015 「Arbitration Studies: Report to Congress」

The United States of America is one of the most favoring countries in which mandatory pre-arbitration clauses in the form of adhesion contract have been widely recognized and supported by courts and the Federal Arbitration Act.However, after the financial crisis in 2008 and the National Arbitration Forum scandal in 2009, in enacting the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act ( Dodd-Frank Act ), Section 1028(a) of the Act requires the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to provide Congress with a report on “the use of agreements providing for arbitration of any future dispute between covered persons and consumers”. Section 1028(b) also grants the CFPB the authority to “prohibit or impose conditions or limitations on the use of an agreement between a covered person and a consumer for a consumer financial product or service providing for arbitration of any future dispute between the parties, if the Bureau finds that such a prohibition or imposition of conditions or limitations is in the public interest and for the protection of consumers.” Pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Act, the CFPB issued a report entitled “2015 Arbitration Study: Report to Congress 2015 (Report)” in March 2015. This paper examines some major legal issues of the Report and makes a few recommendations for Korean financial institutions which entered into the U.S. financial market or has a plan to do so in the near future.