On June 24, Senate Banking Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC), Subcommittee on Digital Assets Chair Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) released a set of guiding principles for the...more
6/27/2025
/ Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Markets ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Investment ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Securities Regulation ,
Senate Banking Committee ,
Stablecoins
On June 17, the U.S. Senate voted 68-30 to pass S.1582, the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act, known as the GENIUS Act (the Act). This represents a landmark effort by the U.S. Congress to...more
6/25/2025
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
BSA/AML ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
FinTech ,
Investment ,
National Security ,
Popular ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Stablecoins ,
Virtual Currency
On Tuesday, June 10, the House Committees on Agriculture and Financial Services both favorably reported to the House H.R. 3633, the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act (as amended). Both committees gave overwhelmingly...more
6/12/2025
/ CFTC ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Committee ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Government Agencies ,
Investment ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation
After years of uncertainty and regulation by enforcement, the U.S. may finally be moving toward a more comprehensive framework for the regulation of digital assets. On June 4, 2025, the House Committee on Financial Services...more
6/10/2025
/ Blockchain ,
CFTC ,
Commodities ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Investment ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Securities Regulation ,
Stablecoins
We are pleased to share with you our latest publication, “Navigating Change: First 100 Days under the Trump Administration,” authored by our Digital Assets + Blockchain team. This retrospective examines the pivotal...more
5/29/2025
/ Blockchain ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Executive Orders ,
FDIC ,
Federal Reserve ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
FinTech ,
Government Agencies ,
Investment Opportunities ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Securities Regulation ,
Trump Administration
Overview: The Fifth Circuit’s highly anticipated decision on December 31, 2024, in the Serta Simmons case has significant implications for borrowers and lenders in financial distress situations. The issue on appeal concerned...more
1/3/2025
/ Bankruptcy Court ,
Bankruptcy Plans ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Creditors ,
Debt Restructuring ,
Debtors ,
Financial Distress ,
Indemnity ,
Lenders ,
Priority Debt
In the case of In re: McIntosh, a debt purchaser’s assertion that it was entitled to enforce a debt not correctly listed on the debtor’s bankruptcy schedules was met with significant pushback from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court...more
6/7/2024
/ Bankruptcy Code ,
Bankruptcy Court ,
Chapter 7 ,
Consumer Bankruptcy ,
Creditors ,
Debt ,
Debt Buyers ,
Debt Collectors ,
Debtors ,
Due Diligence ,
Financial Services Industry
What happens to funds recovered by the trustee after the final plan payment is made in a chapter 13 case? According to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Iowa, absent a plan provision providing otherwise, those...more
2/16/2024
/ Asset Management ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Bankruptcy Court ,
Borrowers ,
Chapter 13 ,
Creditors ,
Debtors ,
Lenders ,
Source of Funds ,
Trust Distributions ,
Trustees
The debt purchaser in In re McIntosh argued that because it was enforcing a debt that was not listed correctly on the debtor’s bankruptcy schedules, it was entitled to assume the debt had not been discharged. The U.S....more
1/30/2024
/ Bankruptcy Code ,
Bankruptcy Court ,
Chapter 7 ,
Credit Cards ,
Creditors ,
Debt ,
Debt Buyers ,
Debt Collection ,
debt-buy ,
Debtors ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Florida ,
Motion for Sanctions ,
PACER
On January 2, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) filed an amicus curiae brief urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to reverse a district court’s decision finding that a debt collector lacked the...more
1/23/2024
/ Amicus Briefs ,
Automatic Stay ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Creditors ,
Debt ,
Debt Collection ,
Debt Collectors ,
FDCPA ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Scienter ,
Statutory Violations
In a unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held that Section 523(a)(2)(A) of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code precludes a debtor from discharging a debt obtained by fraud, regardless of the debtor's own...more
6/26/2023
/ Bankruptcy Code ,
Bankruptcy Court ,
Bartenwerfer v Buckley ,
Chapter 7 ,
Chicago v Fulton ,
Community Property ,
Consumer Bankruptcy ,
Debtors ,
Dischargeable Debts ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Fraud ,
SCOTUS ,
Section 362
In January, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians v. Coughlin after the First Circuit barred the Lac du Flambeau Band from seeking to collect on a $1,600 debt obligation...more
Suppose you are a lender or credit provider to California consumers.
At the start of the pandemic, one of your customers runs up $50,000 in debt and fails to pay. You obtain a judgment and secure it by recording an...more
On March 16, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a compliance bulletin entitled Unfair Billing and Collection Practices After Bankruptcy Discharges of Certain Student Loan Debts. The compliance bulletin...more
In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court held that § 523(a)(2)(A) of the Bankruptcy Code precludes a debtor from discharging a debt obtained by fraud, regardless of the debtor’s own culpability. In Bartenwerfer v. Buckley,...more
On January 19, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Virginia entered an order sanctioning a collections law firm for violating the bankruptcy discharge injunction. The court in Skaggs v. Gooch (In re...more
On January 9, the Seventh Circuit overturned its own 39-year-old precedent to find that: (1) the definition of “transfer” for purposes of section 547 of the Bankruptcy Code depends on federal, not state, law; and (2) the date...more
On July 19, 2022, the Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel ruled that a creditor’s proof of claim — while meeting the standard of the Bankruptcy Code — was insufficient to enforce the debt under state law and was...more
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has released guidance to its attorneys regarding requests to discharge student loans in bankruptcy cases. The 16-page memorandum developed in coordination with the Department of Education...more
Throughout the latter half of 2022, filing for bankruptcy became a reality for many high-profile crypto firms. The resurgence of “crypto winter” has brought many crypto-related entities to their proverbial knees. Indeed, in...more
Please join Consumer Financial Services Partner Chris Willis and his colleagues Deborah Kovsky and Tom Tilton as they discuss new pending legislation — the Consumer Bankruptcy Reform Act — as well as the general, overall...more
In this episode of The Crypto Exchange, Troutman Pepper Consumer Financial Services Partner Ethan Ostroff welcomes back Deborah Kovsky-Apap to discuss the recent FTX bankruptcy and other bankruptcy-related developments in the...more
As multiple bankrupt cryptocurrency Chapter 11 cases begin to pick up steam, depositors of cryptocurrency on the bankrupt exchanges have many questions.
Originally published in Law360 on August 22, 2022....more
A recent decision out of the District of New Hampshire underscores the risks proprietary cryptocurrency issuers face and provides ammunition to the SEC in its continued quest to classify cryptocurrencies as securities subject...more
In this episode of The Crypto Exchange, Troutman Pepper Partner Keith Barnett welcomes his colleague Deborah Kovsky-Apap to discuss various bankruptcy issues facing crypto exchanges, including who exactly owns the digital...more