In a lengthy (65-page) order, the California Superior Court in Los Angeles has issued an extremely important decision upholding the legitimacy of bank-model online lending by denying a motion for preliminary injunction filed...more
11/3/2023
/ California ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinTech ,
Loans ,
Online Marketplace Lending ,
Popular ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
True Lender
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
On October 3, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court held oral argument in CFSA v. CFPB, a case with profound potential implications for the future of the CFPB. The Court will rule on whether the CFPB’s funding mechanism violates the...more
Last Wednesday, the Senate Commerce Committee voted to advance President Biden’s nominees to fill the two open Republican Commissioner seats on the Federal Trade Commission: Andrew N. Ferguson and Melissa Holyoak. The...more
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
Our special guest is Zarik Khan, Founder and Managing Director of Finsolute Advisors. Congress is now considering whether to enact the CCCA, a bill that would require credit card issuers with assets over $100 billion to...more
American Banker recently reported that the CFPB is planning to substantially increase the size of its staff, particularly its Enforcement Division staff....more
Last Wednesday, we published three blog posts about new actions taken by the CFPB and FTC related to the Biden Administration’s war on “junk fees”...more
Last Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a second case, Relentless, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Commerce, in which the question presented is whether the Court should overrule its 1984 decision in Chevron, U.S.A.,...more
10/16/2023
/ Certiorari ,
Chevron Deference ,
Chevron v NRDC ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo ,
National Marine Sanctuaries Act (NMSA) ,
New Regulations ,
Regulatory Agencies ,
Relentless Inc v US Department of Commerce ,
SCOTUS ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
U.S. Commerce Department ,
Vessels
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 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
Our special guest is Mark Budnitz, Professor Emeritus, Georgia State University College of Law. In an article recently published in the Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy, Prof. Budnitz explores the impact on...more
Our special guest is Michael Ostheimer, Senior Consumer Protection Attorney in the FTC’s Division of Advertising Practices. In June 2023, the FTC updated its guides that set forth the FTC’s position on how Section 5 of the...more
In March 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced that it had revised its examination manual to instruct its examiners to apply the “unfairness” standard under the Consumer Financial Protection Act to conduct...more
On September 14th, the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky granted the plaintiff’s motion to preliminarily enjoin the CFPB from implementing the Small Business Lending Rule (Rule) promulgated under...more
9/25/2023
/ American Bankers Association ,
Beneficiaries ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
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 ,
Debt Collection ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Section 1071 ,
Small Business
Last week, a group of consumer advocate organizations filed a Petition for Rulemaking with the CFPB that would prohibit the use of pre-dispute arbitration clauses in consumer contracts in favor of arbitration clauses that...more
9/19/2023
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) ,
Petition for Rulemaking ,
Pre-Dispute Arbitration ,
Proposed Regulation
On September 14th, the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky granted the plaintiff’s motion to preliminarily enjoin the CFPB from implementing the Small Business Lending Rule (“Rule”) promulgated under...more
9/19/2023
/ CFPB v Community Financial Services Association of America ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Federal Funding ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Motion To Enjoin ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Section 1071 ,
Small Business ,
Small Business Loans
Earlier last week, a group of consumer advocate organizations filed a Petition for Rulemaking with the CFPB that would prohibit the use of pre-dispute arbitration clauses in consumer contracts in favor of arbitration clauses...more
9/18/2023
/ Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Congressional Review Act ,
Consumer Contracts ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Final Rules ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) ,
Pre-Dispute Arbitration ,
Statutory Authority
Our special guest is Professor Dan Awrey of Cornell Law School. In July 2023, the Federal Reserve launched FedNow, its instant payments system. After reviewing what FedNow is (and is not), we discuss FedNow’s design features...more
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 Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has announced that it is launching a new Banker Engagement Site (BES) this month through FDICconnect to serve as the primary tool for exchanging examination planning and other...more
9/8/2023
/ Banking Examinations ,
Banks ,
Community Development ,
Community Reinvestment Act ,
Document Requests ,
FDIC ,
Federal Reserve ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Portal
The CFPB has filed its opposition to the motion for a preliminary injunction filed by the plaintiffs in the Kentucky federal court lawsuit challenging the CFPB’s final small business lending rule (Rule)....more
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
Yet another unopposed emergency motion for leave to intervene has been filed in the Texas lawsuit challenging the CFPB’s final small business lending rule (Rule). The latest proposed intervenors are XL Funding, LLC d/b/a...more
The Kentucky banks and Kentucky trade association that filed a lawsuit in a Kentucky federal district court challenging the CFPB’s final small business lending rule (Rule) have filed a motion for a preliminary injunction. ...more
8/24/2023
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
American Bankers Association ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v Community Financial Services Association of America Ltd ,
Final Rules ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
First Amendment ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
SCOTUS ,
Small Business Loans