The federal body tasked with creating standards for the uniform regulation of financial institutions has released new information to assist examiners in evaluating mobile services offered by financial institutions and their...more
The CFPB has announced that it will hold a field hearing in Albuquerque, New Mexico about arbitration on May 5, 2016. We expect the field hearing to coincide with the release of the CFPB’s proposed rule on the use of...more
Following the trend of federal agency interest in fostering (and potentially regulating) innovation in the field of financial technology (FinTech), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) released the white paper...more
An equally divided U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed the Eighth Circuit's decision in Hawkins v. Community Bank of Raymore, which upheld a federal district court ruling that the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) does not...more
A man alleged to be the owner and operator of a group of payday-lending companies and an attorney alleged to have submitted false affidavits and structured sham arrangements have been indicted by a federal grand jury in New...more
The U.S. Department of Justice recently entered into a consent order with Evolve Bank & Trust to settle charges that the bank discriminated against mortgage loan applicants on the basis of disability and receipt of public...more
A recent federal court decision refusing to dismiss Pennsylvania racketeering claims against companies alleged to have partnered with a state bank to market Internet loans illustrates the risks inherent in these relationships...more
The Maryland Court of Appeals, the state’s highest appellate court, last week agreed to review an October 2015 Maryland Court of Special Appeals (MCSA) decision that illustrated how the bank partner structure used by many...more
The New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) has proposed new regulations setting forth minimum standards for anti-money laundering (AML) transaction monitoring and filtering systems. The regulations, proposed December...more
The defendants in Madden v. Midland Funding, LLC have filed a petition for certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the Court to decide whether the preemption of state usury laws under Section 85 of the National Bank...more
An article on consumer arbitration in this week’s Sunday New York Times concludes that “[b]y inserting individual arbitration clauses into a soaring number of consumer and employment contracts, companies… devised a way to...more
11/3/2015
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Banking Sector ,
Banks ,
Class Action ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Consumer Financial Contracts ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Financial Institutions ,
New York Times
The CFPB has now taken two more significant steps towards issuing a proposed arbitration rule. On October 20, 2015, the CFPB convened its Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (SBREFA) panel to review the...more
The Minnesota Supreme Court has ruled that the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution does not preclude Minnesota from applying its payday lending law to loans consummated in Delaware that are made to Minnesota residents...more
In a blog post earlier this week, Professor Jeff Sovern took issue with statements made by a legal expert that suggest an amendment to the Federal Arbitration Act would be necessary for the CFPB to ban class action waivers in...more
The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Monday in the case of Hawkins v. Community Bank of Raymore, the result of which will determine whether a spousal guarantor is an “applicant” under the Equal Credit Opportunity...more
10/9/2015
/ Banking Sector ,
Banks ,
Cause of Action Accrual ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Discrimination ,
ECOA ,
Federal Reserve ,
Financial Institutions ,
Loans ,
Regulation B ,
SCOTUS ,
Spousal Guaranty
In a June 2014 alert, we discussed Community Financial Services Association vs. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, a payday loan industry suit challenging on various grounds certain supervisory and interpretive statements...more
9/30/2015
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Banking Sector ,
Banks ,
Choke Point ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Lenders ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
FDIC ,
Financial Institutions ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Payday Loans ,
Subject Matter Jurisdiction
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently issued citations to two companies charged with violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) consent requirements for autodialed or prerecorded calls to wireless...more
9/21/2015
/ Apple Pay ,
Banking Sector ,
Banks ,
Cell Phones ,
Class Action ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
FCC ,
Online Banking ,
Opt-Outs ,
Prior Express Consent ,
Right to Privacy ,
Robocalling ,
Smartphones ,
TCPA ,
Telecommunications ,
Telemarketing
A new type of Electronic Funds Transfer Act (EFTA) class action is now being filed in volume. This trend is highly likely to continue, as the cases are being filed by a consumer class action firm that has filed hundreds of...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) can regulate cybersecurity policies and procedures as “unfair” acts or practices under Section 5 of the FTC Act, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has ruled in a very important...more
9/1/2015
/ Appeals ,
Banking Sector ,
Banks ,
Best Practices ,
COPPA ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Cybersecurity ,
Cybersecurity Framework ,
Data Protection ,
Data Security ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Fraudulent Charges ,
FTC Act ,
FTC v Wyndham ,
Gramm-Leach-Blilely Act ,
Hackers ,
Jurisdiction ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
NIST ,
Section 5 ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices ,
Wyndham
We have previously blogged about the comment letter concerning the CFPB’s March 10, 2015 Study on consumer arbitration that we submitted to the CFPB on behalf of the American Bankers Association, the Consumer Bankers...more
New York City’s Responsible Banking Act (RBA) is preempted by federal and state law, a federal court has ruled. Pursuant to the New York City Charter, only financial institutions that are designated “deposit banks” by the...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has ruled that Pennsylvania’s recording statute does not require the recording of all conveyances. As a result, the Third Circuit reversed the district court’s refusal to enter...more
8/7/2015
/ Banking Sector ,
Banks ,
Class Action ,
Declaratory Judgments ,
Deeds ,
Financial Institutions ,
Lenders ,
MERS ,
Mortgage Lenders ,
Mortgages ,
Recording Fees
A new report issued by the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) identifies top safety and soundness risks to national banks and federal savings associations, as well as OCC supervisory priorities for the...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled last week that a purchaser of charged-off debts from a national bank was not entitled to assert the preemption of state usury laws available to national banks under...more
In updated examiner guidance and examination procedures issued last week, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) directs its examiners to assess whether the overdraft protection and other deposit-related consumer...more