Foreign news: The voice for US financial service consumers goes mute, the big bucks are still in Lon
Since Donald Trump became US President, not a single enforcement action has been taken against banks, credit card companies, debt collectors or finance companies by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, reports AP. Acting director of the CFPB is Trump appointee Mike Mulvaney who once called the bureau "a sick, sad joke" and promised to take a much softer approach to enforcement. Under the previous director, the bureau issued an average of two to four enforcement actions a month. European Banking Authority statistics show that more than three-quarters of the EU's best paid bankers and asset managers are based in London, reports the FT. The number of bankers across Europe earning more than €1 million a year was 4,597 in 2016 (the last year for which data is available) and 3,529 of them were based in the UK. The country with the second highest number was Germany, with just 253 €1 million-plus earners. A total of 15 UK-based bankers and executives earned more than €10 million. Paypal says its rollout of a new debit card for online and offline shopping is intended to target "unbanked" US consumers, reports Finextra. The PayPal cash Mastercard will let customers use their PayPal account like a bank account, access money in it to shop online or in stores where Mastercard is accepted, and even withdraw cash from ATMs. They will be able to deposit paycheques directly into their PayPal account for free. The company is by-passing US bank license requirements by partnering with small US banks that are permitted to provide the services, including a Delaware bank that will handle debit cards, a bank in Georgia that will deal with cheque deposits and a Utah bank that will offer loans.