Financial services industry groups are staunchly opposing a proposal by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) to require supervised nonbank entities to provide information about their use of certain terms...more
The U.S. PIRG Education Fund (PIRG) released a report analyzing consumer complaints submitted to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in 2021 and 2022. The report noted that consumer complaint totals set a new...more
In Ingersoll v. Brandsness, the suit arose out of an effort by a collection agency and its counsel to obtain a judgment on unpaid medical bills. After the filing of the complaint, and the consumer’s filing an answer, the...more
On March 15, Judge Eve M. Reilly of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, dismissed a class action complaint based solely on the allegation that a collection letter was sent by a third-party letter vendor....more
Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) issued a policy statement purporting to summarize, in clear and simple terms, the meaning of the statutory prohibition on abusive conduct. Policy statements are...more
As promised (and discussed here), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued its final rule under Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Final Rule). Section 1071 amended...more
The U.S. House of Representatives has introduced a bill, H.R. 1773, that seeks to amend the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). The proposed amendment would include a two-year bar on the collection of medical debts...more
As discussed here, in August 2020, a district court for the Middle District of Tennessee held that a medical provider’s third-party billing servicer did not qualify as a debt collector under the Fair Debt Collections...more
Yesterday, a three-judge panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals issued a unanimous opinion declining to follow the Fifth Circuit’s decision in Community Financial Services Association of America, Ltd. v. Consumer...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
This morning the U.S. Supreme Court granted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB or Bureau) petition for certiorari in Community Financial Services Association of America Ltd. (CFSA) v. CFPB, a case that could...more
As discussed here, on September 8, 2022, an en banc panel of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the district court’s decision that a debt collector’s outsourcing of its letter process to a third-party mail vendor...more
According to the district court for the District of Massachusetts, debt collectors may be found in violation of § 1692g(a)(3) of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) when sending debt collection letters requiring...more
On February 23, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) announced that it has issued orders to nine of the largest auto lenders requesting information about their auto lending portfolios. According to the...more
As previously reported here, on May 25, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) published a blog post, examining what it described as the “practice of suppressing payment data” by credit card issuers...more
On February 14, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) published a blog discussing improvements made to its services with the goal of providing the same experience to consumers with limited English...more
On February 14, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a report entitled Market Snapshot: An Update on Third-Party Debt Collections Tradelines Reporting. The report sought to examine trends in the reporting...more
Can websites or mobile apps that offer ranked lists of mortgage providers purportedly best suited for individual consumers violate section 8 of the Real Estate Settlement Practices Act (RESPA)? According to the Consumer...more
As discussed here, on December 7, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) made a preliminary conclusion that a New York commercial financing law was not preempted by the Truth in Lending Act (TILA)....more
On December 28, 2022, the New York Department of Financial Services released its debt collection rule amendments to 23 NYCRR 1, the regulation titled “Debt Collection by Third-Party Debt Collectors and Debt Buyers.” The...more
May a debt collector incur liability under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) by seeking to collect a debt under a state court judgment later determined to be void? Not according to the Third Circuit Court of...more
As discussed here, on October 19, 2022 the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Community Financial Services Association of America Ltd. (CFSA) v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) held that the CFPB’s funding...more
On January 11, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced it reached a settlement with law firm Forster & Garbus, LLP in its lawsuit over alleged illegal debt collection practices. Specifically, the CFPB...more
As forecasted in its 2022 Fall Rulemaking Agenda discussed here, today the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published a proposed rule with request for public comments that would require certain nonbank covered...more
As discussed here, on May 20, California’s Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI or Department) announced that it had filed a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking with the Office of Administrative Law. The purpose...more