The CFPB, Fed, and OCC have announced that they are increasing three exemption thresholds that are subject to annual inflation adjustments. Effective January 1, 2024 through December 31, 2024, these exemption thresholds are...more
11/15/2023
/ Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Credit ,
Exemptions ,
Federal Reserve ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Financial Transactions ,
Inflation Adjustments ,
Loans ,
Mortgages ,
OCC ,
Proposed Rules ,
Regulation M ,
Regulation Z ,
Threshold Requirements ,
Truth in Lending Act (TILA)
The White House signaled last week that, with the resumption of federal student loan payments, federal student loan servicers can expect to face increased scrutiny. The Department of Education issued a “Framework for Student...more
11/14/2023
/ Borrowers ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Consumer Lenders ,
Department of Education ,
Federal Student Loans ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Forbearance Agreements ,
Lenders ,
Loans ,
New Guidance ,
Student Loan Servicers Regulation ,
Student Loans
In September 2023, the CFPB updated its UDAAP Examination Manual to remove the changes it made in March 2022 which provided that unfair acts or practices encompassed discriminatory conduct, even in circumstances to which...more
The Federal Trade Commission recently announced that it has entered into a settlement with Bridge It, Inc. (“Brigit”), the operator of a personal finance mobile application, to resolve the FTC’s allegations that Brigit...more
11/10/2023
/ Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Consumer Reporting Agencies ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FTC Act ,
Mobile Apps ,
ROSCA ,
Section 5 ,
Settlement ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices
On November 6, the CFPB filed a notice with the Texas federal district court that it is appealing to the Fifth Circuit the district court’s order granting summary judgment to a group of trade associations in their lawsuit...more
The CFPB has issued a proposed rule to supervise nonbank companies that qualify as larger participants in a market for “general-use digital consumer payment applications.” Comments on the proposal are due by January 8, 2024...more
11/9/2023
/ Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Digital Wallets ,
EFTs ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Mobile Payments ,
Money Transfer ,
Nonbank Firms ,
Payment Systems ,
Proposed Rules ,
Regulation E ,
Small Business
A group of eleven Republican Senators who are members of the Senate Banking Committee have sent a letter to CFPB Director Rohit Chopra and Attorney General Merrick Garland to urge the CFPB and DOJ to retract the joint...more
11/8/2023
/ Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Credit Applicants ,
Credit History ,
Creditors ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Discriminatory Lending Practices ,
ECOA ,
Fair Lending ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Immigration Status Discrimination ,
Joint Statements ,
Lenders ,
Loans ,
Regulation B
The Texas federal district court hearing the lawsuit challenging the validity of the CFPB’s final rule implementing Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act (Rule) has issued an order that preliminarily enjoins the CFPB from...more
10/31/2023
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v Community Financial Services Association of America Ltd ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Federal Funding ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
SCOTUS ,
Section 1071 ,
Small Business ,
Small Business Loans
As we previously blogged, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve (the “Board”) held an open meeting on October 25, 2023 to discuss the debit card interchange fee cap. The debit card interchange fee cap was part of the...more
10/31/2023
/ Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Consumer Information ,
Credit Cards ,
Debit and Credit Card Transactions ,
Debit Cards ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Federal Reserve ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Interchange Fees
The New Jersey Attorney General (NJAG) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently announced settlements in concurrent actions against Sollers College, a for-profit college, its parent company, Sollers, Inc., and, in the...more
10/30/2023
/ Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
For Profit Colleges ,
FTC Act ,
Income Share Agreements ,
Job Offers ,
Misrepresentation ,
Settlement ,
Students
Recently the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) entered into a proposed consent order with Ameris Bank to resolve allegations of redlining from 2016 through 2021 in majority Black and Hispanic areas in the Bank’s Jacksonville,...more
10/30/2023
/ Banks ,
Community Reinvestment Act ,
Consent Order ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Discriminatory Lending Practices ,
ECOA ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Fair Housing Act (FHA) ,
Fair Lending ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Mortgages ,
Race Discrimination ,
Redlining ,
Regulation B
The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve (FRB) is holding an open meeting on October 25, 2023 to discuss proposed revisions to the Board’s debit interchange fee cap contained in Regulation II, which implemented the...more
10/20/2023
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Credit Cards ,
Debit and Credit Card Transactions ,
Debit Cards ,
Durbin Amendment Rules ,
Federal Reserve ,
Final Rules ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FRB ,
Interchange Fees
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced that it has entered into a Consent Order with Chime Inc., a nonbank fintech company, to settle alleged violations of the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA), Subpart B of...more
10/20/2023
/ Consent Order ,
Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
EFTA ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinTech ,
Non-Bank Lenders ,
Regulation E ,
Remittance Transfer Rule ,
Statutory Violations
On Wednesday, by a vote of 53-44, the Senate voted to approve S.J. 32, the resolution introduced under the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to override the CFPB’s final Section 1071 small business lending rule (1071 Rule)....more
10/20/2023
/ Congressional Review Act ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v Community Financial Services Association of America Ltd ,
CRA ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
First Amendment ,
OCC ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Section 1071 ,
Small Business ,
Small Business Loans ,
True Lender
The CFPB and FTC announced last week that they had entered into a settlement with Trans Union LLC (TU LLC) to resolve a lawsuit filed jointly in a Colorado federal district court by the agencies alleging that TU LLC and its...more
10/18/2023
/ Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Credit Reports ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FTC Act ,
Screening Procedures ,
Settlement ,
Statutory Violations ,
TransUnion
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Department of Justice have issued a joint statement regarding “the potential civil rights implications of a creditor’s consideration of an individual’s immigration status under the...more
10/17/2023
/ Ability-to-Repay ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Discriminatory Lending Practices ,
ECOA ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Immigration ,
Immigration Status Discrimination ,
Joint Statements ,
Regulation B ,
Regulation Z
The CFPB has released a new issue of Supervisory Highlights that carries the title “Junk Fees Update Special Edition.” The report discusses the CFPB’s examinations involving fees in the areas of deposits, auto servicing, and...more
As part of the White House’s latest round of efforts targeting so-called “junk fees,” the Federal Trade Commission has issued a proposed rule, “Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees.” The proposal follows the FTC’s issuance in...more
10/12/2023
/ Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FTC Act ,
Goods or Services ,
Hidden Fees ,
Proposed Rules ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Section 5 ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices
As we have previously reported on this blog and discussed on our Consumer Finance Monitor Podcast, last year, the CFPB embarked on a campaign orchestrated by the Biden Administration to eliminate “junk fees.” ...more
10/12/2023
/ Advisory Opinions ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Credit Unions ,
Fees ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Insufficient Funds ,
Regulation X ,
UDAAP
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) have filed a joint amicus brief in which they urge the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to reverse the decision of a New...more
10/10/2023
/ Amicus Briefs ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Consumer Reporting Agencies ,
Consumer Reports ,
Credit Reporting Agencies ,
Credit Reports ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Fraud ,
Identity Theft
This week, the U.S. Supreme Court held oral argument in Community Financial Services Association of America Ltd. v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a case we have been following closely on Consumer Finance Monitor...more
The CFPB recently released a report regarding higher education tuition payment plans that discusses prevailing practices and highlights certain CFPB concerns regarding consumer impact. The CFPB’s report was based upon (a) a...more
9/29/2023
/ Colleges ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Department of Education ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Higher Education Act ,
Payment Plans ,
Post-Secondary Institutions ,
Public Information ,
Regulation Z ,
Student Loans ,
Truth in Lending Act (TILA) ,
Tuition
On September 21, 2023, with limited time to digest the comments received by September 11, 2023 from the request for information regarding medical payment products, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) started the...more
9/28/2023
/ Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Consumer Reporting Agencies ,
Consumer Reports ,
Creditors ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Medical Debt ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Regulation V ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Rulemaking Process ,
SBREFA
In May 2022, the CFPB issued Circular 2022-3 addressing Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) adverse action notice requirements in connection with credit decisions based on algorithms. The CFPB is now revisiting the issue in...more
Last week, three farm credit trade associations filed the latest in a series of unopposed emergency motions for leave to intervene in the Texas case challenging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (“CFPB”) final small...more