On August 26, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas issued a decision upholding the legality of the CFPB Small Business Lending Rule (the “Rule”) (designed to implement section 1071 of the...more
On August 2, New Hampshire passed House Bill 1243 (the “Bill”), which substantially amends its Motor Vehicle Retail Installment Sales Act (the “Act”). The Bill is effective as of August 2....more
On August 12, the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC), a prominent consumer advocacy group, petitioned the CFPB to open rulemaking under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) to expand the definition of “credit” to include...more
8/19/2024
/ Adverse Action ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Consumer Protection Laws ,
Credit Reports ,
ECOA ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
Fair Lending ,
Landlords ,
NCLC ,
Notification Requirements ,
Rental Property ,
Residential Leases ,
Rulemaking Process
On August 13, the CFPB announced an advisory opinion on the applicability of the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) and Regulation Z to “contracts for deed.” A contract for deed is an arrangement in which a consumer purchases a home...more
On August 8, the CFPB filed a proposed order to resolve its 2021 lawsuit (previously discussed here) against a California-based software company and its CEO for their role in helping credit repair businesses charge illegal...more
On August 2, members of U.S. House of Representatives introduced H.J. Res. 195, a joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under the Congressional Review Act (CRA) of recent CFPB guidance (previously discussed...more
On July 25, federal regulators issued a joint statement to further put banking organizations on notice of the inherent risks of collaborating with fintechs in offering deposit products and services. This guidance aims to...more
On July 29, the FTC filed a stipulated order settling claims against an online career-training company on the grounds that it engaged in deceptive advertising. In addition to injunctive relief barring the company from...more
On a July 19, the Federal Reserve Board announced it has issued a consent order against a Utah-based bank and its parent company for engaging in unfair and deceptive acts and practices in violation of Section 5(a)(1) of the...more
On July 11, the Federal District Court for the Middle District of Florida granted the FTC’s request for a temporary restraining order against operators of a debt relief enterprise that unlawfully charged consumers illegal...more
On July 22, a Texas-based lease-to-own company filed suit against the CFPB in Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Texas alleging that its “illegal and unconstitutional investigation” into the company’s business...more
The CFPB recently released a report on payment processing companies that manage school lunch payments for school districts. The companies, the report argues, cater to a captive market and often impose transaction fees that...more
On July 24, 2024, the CFPB issued a circular detailing how companies may be breaking the law by requiring employees to sign broad nondisclosure agreements that could deter whistleblowing. Under Section 1057(a) of the...more
7/29/2024
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Adverse Employment Action ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Corporate Governance ,
Covered Employees ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Investigations ,
Whistleblowers
On June 28, Pennsylvania took a significant step to enhance its data protection framework by updating the Breach of Personal Information Notification Act through the enactment of SB 824. This new legislation revises the older...more
Florida recently enacted H1347, revising the state’s criteria for what constitutes usurious consumer loans.
The Florida Consumer Finance Act prohibits charging an interest rate of more than 18% per year on a loan of...more
On July 18, the CFPB proposed a new interpretive rule that would characterize earned wage access (“EWA”) products as extensions of credit and subject to the Truth in Lending Act and Regulation Z. Under the interpretive...more
On July 10, the CFPB announced proposed rules for mortgage servicers, aimed at helping homeowners avoid foreclosures. The new rules, which would modify RESPA and Regulation X’s existing mortgage servicing framework, are...more
On July 11, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court’s decision dismissing a CFPB action against an Illinois-based mortgage lender and its owner for violations of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act....more
On June 25, the CFPB issued its annual fair lending report covering its fair lending activity in 2023. The Bureau noted that in 2023 it undertook 28 fair lending examinations and announced four enforcement actions. It...more
7/8/2024
/ Annual Reports ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Credit Cards ,
Enforcement ,
Fair Lending ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
HMDA ,
Machine Learning ,
Mortgage Servicing Rules ,
Proposed Rules ,
Rulemaking Process
On June 28, the FTC announced it had filed an action in federal court against a California-based student debt relief enterprise for deceptive practices, including unlawfully obtaining advance fees for debt relief, and...more
An Oklahoma-based bank has been hit with a consent order from the FDIC after posting significant losses in its first year of operation. On June 28, the FDIC announced that it took an enforcement action against the bank...more
On July 2, the CFPB released its Summer 2024 Supervisory Highlights, which focused on the servicing and collection of consumer debt. The report shared key findings from recent supervisory examinations of auto and student loan...more
On June 14, the Federal Reserve Board (Fed) released a cease and desist order against an Arkansas-based banking-as-a-service (BaaS) provider for compliance and risk management failures. As part of the order, the bank is...more
7/2/2024
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
Banking Sector ,
Banks ,
Board of Directors ,
Corporate Governance ,
Enforcement ,
Federal Reserve ,
Financial Institutions ,
FinTech ,
Noncompliance ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Risk Management
On June 25, the CFPB released a formal action to extend the compliance deadlines for its Section 1071 small business lending rule (previously discussed here, here, and here). Once issued, the rule was challenged in the United...more
On June 28, the United States Supreme Court overturned a decades-old precedent, Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U. S. 837, a ruling that instructed judges about when they could defer to federal...more