The CFPB has released a supervisory order which establishes that the CFPB has supervisory authority over World Acceptance Corp. (WAC) based on the CFPB’s conclusion that it has reasonable cause to determine that WAC “is...more
This two-part podcast repurposes our most recent webinar on the latest salvo of actions in the Biden Administration’s initiative directed at combatting so-called “junk fees.” Launched in January 2022, the initiative shows no...more
Last week, the CFPB issued its Semi-Annual Report to Congress covering the period beginning October 1, 2022 and ending March 31, 2023. ...more
11/30/2023
/ Banks ,
Borrowers ,
CFPB Director ,
Congressional Investigations & Hearings ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v Community Financial Services Association of America Ltd ,
Consumer Lenders ,
Credit Cards ,
Credit Unions ,
Final Rules ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Committee ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Late Fees ,
Lenders ,
Proposed Rules ,
Section 1071 ,
Senate Committees
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
The CFPB recently issued a policy statement in which it provided a framework for determining what constitutes abusive conduct under the CFPA. After reviewing the definition of abusive in the CFPA and the historical background...more
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
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
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
As we predicted long ago, on Friday, September 8, 2023, the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Texas vacated the changes made in March 2022 to the CFPB’s Exam Manual. On that date, the CFPB purported to use...more
9/13/2023
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Discriminatory Lending Practices ,
ECOA ,
Examination Procedures ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Regulatory Authority ,
Statutory Violations ,
UDAAP ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices
The CFPB announced this week that it has entered into a proposed settlement of a lawsuit it filed in 2019 in Utah federal district court against a group of defendants who constitute the largest credit repair organizations in...more
9/1/2023
/ Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Consumer Lenders ,
Credit Repair Services ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FTC Act ,
Section 5 ,
Settlement ,
Statutory Violations ,
Telemarketing ,
Telemarketing Sales Rule
The CFPB has filed a lawsuit in a South Carolina federal district court against Heights Finance Holding Co. f/k/a Southern Management Corporation and a group of its wholly-owned, state-licensed subsidiaries (collectively,...more
Townstone Mortgage (Townstone) has filed its brief in the CFPB’s appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from the district court’s decision in the CFPB’s enforcement action against Townstone. In the...more
8/23/2023
/ American Bar Association (ABA) ,
Chevron Deference ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
ECOA ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Mortgage Lenders ,
Mortgages ,
Popular ,
Regulation B
The CFPB has filed a lawsuit in a Georgia federal district court against USASF Servicing (USASF) in which the CFPB alleges that USASF engaged in various unfair acts or practices in violation of the Consumer Financial...more
The CFPB has released the Summer 2023 edition of Supervisory Highlights. The report discusses the Bureau’s examinations in the areas of auto origination and servicing, consumer reporting, debt collection, deposits, mortgage...more
7/31/2023
/ Bank Deposits ,
Borrowers ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Consumer Reporting Agencies ,
Consumer Reports ,
Debt Collection ,
ECOA ,
Fair Lending ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Lenders ,
Military Lending Act ,
Mortgages ,
Regulation B ,
Regulation X ,
Regulation Z ,
Supervisory Highlights ,
UDAAP
The CFPB and the OCC announced that they have each entered into a consent order with Bank of America, N.A. for alleged violations arising from the Bank’s representment fee practices (“Fee Consent Orders”). The CFPB also...more
7/13/2023
/ Bank of America ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Consent Order ,
Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Credit Cards ,
Deposit Accounts ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
OCC ,
Popular ,
Statutory Violations
The CFPB announced this week that it has entered into a consent order with ACI Worldwide Corp. and one of its subsidiaries, ACI Payments, Inc., in connection with more than 1.4 million erroneous electronic fund transfer...more
6/30/2023
/ Consent Order ,
Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
EFTs ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Mortgage Lenders ,
Mortgage Servicers ,
Mortgage Servicing Rules ,
Mortgages ,
Regulation E
Last week, the FTC filed a civil case against Amazon alleging that the company used “dark patterns” to enroll people in its Prime program. The case continues a pattern initiated by FTC Chair Lina Khan of challenging...more
A unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has affirmed the district court’s order dismissing several defendants as sanctions for the CFPB’s continuation of “obstructionist conduct” in...more
6/15/2023
/ Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Debt Collection ,
Debt Collectors ,
Depositions ,
Discovery ,
Discovery Disputes ,
Discovery Violations ,
FDCPA ,
FRCP 37(b) ,
Motion for Sanctions ,
Sanctions
The CFPB announced at the end of last week that it had entered into a consent order with Phoenix Financial Services, LLC (Phoenix), a third-party debt collector that collects primarily past-due medical debts and furnishes...more
6/13/2023
/ Consent Order ,
Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
CRA ,
Debt Collection ,
Debt Collectors ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
FDCPA ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Medical Debt ,
Regulation V ,
Third-Party
In a new “Issues spotlight” titled “Chatbots in consumer finance,” the CFPB discusses how chatbot technologies are being used by financial institutions and the limitations and risks of such technologies. The report, which is...more
In the CFPB’s second attempt to define “abusive” acts or practices, the first being guidance rescinded a year after it was given in 2020, the CFPB has issued a new policy statement in which it turns to statutory analysis and...more
Director Chopra gave interviews this week to several news reporting outlets including American Banker, Law 360, Politico, and Bloomberg. Below are some of highlights of the interviews as reported by those outlets, several of...more
Delivering the keynote address last week at the Consumer Federation of America’s 2022 Consumer Assembly, CFPB Deputy Director Zixta Martinez indicated that the CFPB “is taking a close look” at “’rent-a-bank’ schemes.”...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in CFPB v. CashCall, has rejected CashCall’s constitutional challenge, affirmed the district court’s finding that the corporate defendants and its CEO were liable for engaging...more
The CFPB has issued a new interpretive rule regarding the authority of state attorneys general and state regulators (State Officials) to enforce the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA). ...more