On May 20, the CFPB settled an enforcement action against a California-based telemarketing firm for practices related to student loan debt relief services. The Bureau has ordered the firm to permanently halt operations and...more
The CFPB is continuing its crusade against so called “junk fees,” and now is looking at credit reporting fees. In a May 20 speech to the Mortgage Bankers Association, Director Rohit Chopra highlighted the rising costs of...more
On April 26, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued Mortgagee Letter 2024-06, announcing changes to the Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECMs) for purchases (H4P loans), a mortgage program...more
On May 21, the Massachusetts Attorney General entered into an Assurance of Discontinuance (“AOD”) with a California-based fintech alleging that it was the “true lender” of its consumer installment loans. Under the terms of...more
On May 17, Colorado’s governor signed the nation’s first artificial intelligence law designed to prevent algorithmic discrimination. The law is slated to go into effect on February 1, 2026....more
On May 3, a California resident filed a class action lawsuit in federal court accusing a Los Angeles-based credit union of discriminatory practices, and raised a civil rights claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1981, and violations of...more
5/20/2024
/ Class Action ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Consumer Privacy Rights ,
Credit Unions ,
DACA ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Discrimination ,
ECOA ,
Fair Lending ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Immigrants ,
Unruh Civil Rights Act
On May 16, the United States Supreme Court, in a 7-2 ruling, held that the CFPB’s funding mechanism does not violate the Appropriations Clause of the U.S. Constitution. As we previously discussed in greater detail, under the...more
On May 13, the FTC’s amendment to the Safeguards Rule relating to the reporting of data breaches and security incidents, which were announced in October of 2023, became effective. As a reminder, the FTC’s Safeguards Rule...more
5/20/2024
/ Car Dealerships ,
Consumer Privacy Rights ,
Cyber Incident Reporting ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Mortgage Lenders ,
Non-Bank Lenders ,
Notification Requirements ,
Payday Loans ,
Personal Information ,
Privacy Laws ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Safeguards Rule
On May 17, the CFPB filed a lawsuit against a California-based fintech that operates a nationwide website and mobile-application based peer-to-peer lending platform through which consumers can obtain small-dollar, short-term...more
On May 9, the CFPB issued a new report highlighting the issues consumers encounter with credit card rewards programs. The report was released in conjunction with a hearing co-hosted with the Department of Transportation and...more
On May 6, 2024, the CFPB resolved an enforcement action against a group of Delaware student loan trusts and a loan servicer (found here and here) for their failures to adequately respond to borrowers’ requests for relief,...more
On March 28, the FDIC released the spring edition of its consumer compliance supervisory highlights. The FDIC supervises approximately 3,000 state-chartered banks and thrifts that are not members of the Federal Reserve...more
5/13/2024
/ Banking Sector ,
Banks ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
EFTA ,
Fair Lending ,
FDIC ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinTech ,
FTC Act ,
Regulation E ,
Regulation Z ,
Section 5 ,
Truth in Lending Act (TILA)
On April 22, the Governor of Tennessee signed HB 2100 into law. This new law, an amendment to the state’s consumer protection codes, introduces protections for consumers against discrimination by financial institutions and...more
In an April 16 unpublished opinion, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel’s earlier decision finding that a mortgage lender not licensed in California violated the state’s usury law...more
On May 1, the FTC announced a settlement in federal court in the Northern District of Georgia against a payment processing company, along with its former CEO and senior vice president, for the company’s role in handling...more
On April 25, the FTC took action against a Washington-based bill payment company and its two co-founders alleging that the company used misleading search ads to impersonate consumers’ billers and deceptive design practices to...more
On April 24, the CFPB released its latest edition of Supervisory Highlights detailing the agency’s actions taken to combat “junk fees” it alleges are charged by mortgage servicers. This spotlight on fees in mortgage servicing...more
On April 19, less than a month after Wisconsin’s enacted legislation, Kansas has followed suited by enacting comprehensive earned wages access legislation. Kansas’ law is set to take effect immediately upon publication....more
4/29/2024
/ Commercial Loans ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Kansas ,
Lenders ,
New Legislation ,
State and Local Government ,
State Legislatures
On April 4, Kentucky enacted HB 88, which will amend laws related to unlawful trade practices, and prohibit entities that are not banks or trust companies from:
- suggesting that they are engaged in banking or trust...more
On April 17, the CFPB issued a consent order against a San Francisco-based for-profit coding school and its and CEO, banning it from lending to consumers, after it found that the company inflated its job placement rates to...more
On April 17, the Kansas Legislature signed SB 345, to become the most recent state to enact disclosure requirements for small business lenders.
The law’s requirements apply to “providers” which are defined as persons who...more
4/22/2024
/ Commercial Loans ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Kansas ,
Lenders ,
New Legislation ,
Small Business ,
State and Local Government ,
State Legislatures
On March 28, the Federal Reserve (Fed) issued a cease-and-desist order to a Wyoming-based bank holding company, citing deficiencies identified in a September 2023 inspection related to its “fintech business strategy, board...more
4/22/2024
/ Bank Holding Company ,
Banking Sector ,
Banks ,
Business Strategies ,
Cease and Desist Orders ,
Enforcement ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinTech ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Risk Management
In the FDIC’s latest monthly update on enforcement decisions and orders, the agency published recent consent orders it entered against both a New York-based and an Ohio-based bank, the latest in the agency’s series of...more
On March 25, Washington State became the latest in a growing list of jurisdictions to introduce a “true lender” law with the passing of bill SB 6025. The legislation, similar to laws in other states would characterize a...more
On April 9, 2024, seven states filed suit against the Biden administration in an attempt to block its new “SAVE” plan, an income-driven repayment plan that leads to eventual loan forgiveness. The case is pending in the U.S....more