Oregon may become the latest state attempting to stop out-of-state banks from “exporting” home-state interest rates on loans made to Oregon consumers. Like similar legislation adopted by Colorado in 2023, House Bill 2561...more
On Tuesday, November 26, the Minnesota Attorney General’s office (AG) announced it filed a consent order to resolve allegations that online lenders were charging interest on loans in excess of the amounts prescribed under...more
On September 20, 13 states and Washington, D.C. joined Colorado in its appeal asking the Tenth Circuit to uphold a state law imposing more restrictive interest rate caps on loans from out-of-state banks to residents, arguing...more
A bill before the New York State Assembly would, if passed, have major implications for a variety of financing transactions in the Empire State. Titled the End Loan Sharking Act, Assembly Bill 9585 would subject a variety of...more
A California state court recently denied a preliminary injunction sought by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (the DFPI) in its long-running litigation against Opportunity Financial (OppFi)...more
Usury is the unlawful lending of money at unreasonably high rates of interest. So, what is unreasonable? And what happens if your loan goes beyond that amount?...more
In its April 2023 Opposition to the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) motion for preliminary injunction, Opportunity Financial, LLC (OppFi) presents a spirited riposte, drilling down into the...more
California limits the amount of interest that may be charged on loans and forbearances. While that is the general rule, there are numerous statutory exemptions. One of those exemptions can be found in California...more
Does California's usury limitations constitute a "strong public policy"? Seemingly, that question was decided over a half-century ago by the First District Court of Appeal in Ury v. Jewelers Acceptance Corp., 227 Cal. App....more
On January 24, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit concluded that a district court did not abuse its discretion when certifying a class action. The lawsuit alleges an individual who orchestrated an online payday...more
In December, the State of Iowa and the Iowa Division of Banking entered into an Assurance of Discontinuance (“AOD”) with Transportation Alliance Bank, Inc. (the “Bank”) settling claims that the Bank charged usurious rates of...more
In Adar Bays, LLC v. GeneSYS ID, Inc., the New York Court of Appeals (the “Court”) held that the conversion price in a convertible option could be classified as interest thereby potentially falling under the territory of New...more
On March 23, 2021, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed into law Senate Bill 1792, enacting the Predatory Loan Prevention Act (PLPA) and capping interest at an “all-in” 36% APR (similar to the Military Lending Act’s MAPR) for...more
On November 5, 2020, the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had filed a complaint against a Florida-based payday lender and its CEO in the Southern District of Florida. The complaint alleges that...more
In January 2017, the Attorney General of Colorado filed two lawsuits against Marlette Funding LLC and Avant of Colorado LLC. Among other things, the lawsuits claimed that these two companies, as the online platforms for loans...more
A recently-released Federal Reserve Board article, “The Cost Structure of Consumer Finance Companies and Its Implications for Interest Rates: Evidence from the Federal Reserve Board’s 2015 Survey of Finance Companies,”...more
As previously reported, the OCC recently adopted a final rule (the “Madden fix”) designed to resolve the legal uncertainty created by the Second Circuit’s decision in Madden v. Midland Funding, which held that a non-bank that...more
The Second Circuit’s decision in Madden v. Midland Funding, LLC was announced in 2015. Since that time, there have been a number of cases brought based on the Second Circuit opinion, as well as recent regulatory proposals...more
A frequently asked question in the lending community is whether there is an established amount regarding the maximum late fee that can be charged for a late payment made on a loan in Arkansas. Unfortunately, the answer to...more
The CFPB announced that it has entered into a proposed consent order with Think Finance and six subsidiaries (collectively, the “Think Entities’) to settle the Bureau’s lawsuit filed in November 2017 that alleged the Think...more
There were significant developments in 2019 as courts continued to issue important decisions in this space and significant legislation impacting the residential mortgage-backed securities (“RMBS”) market came into effect. A...more
New federal legislation introduced in the House and Senate would place a 36% annual percentage rate cap on nearly all consumer loans, potentially killing the small dollar consumer lending industry. Last month, Congressmen...more
As expected, the U.S. Supreme Court’s grant of Seila Law’s cert petition is impacting other cases in which the CFPB’s constitutionality has also been challenged. ...more
On August 6, 2019, the New York Department of Financial Services Superintendent Linda A. Lacewell announced that the DFS will lead a multistate investigation into the payroll advance industry and allegations of unlawful...more
The OCC and FDIC have filed a joint amicus brief in a Colorado federal district court arguing that the court should affirm the decision of a bankruptcy court holding that a non-bank loan assignee could charge the same...more