To help you keep abreast of relevant activities, below find a breakdown of some of the biggest events at the federal and state levels to impact the Consumer Finance Services industry this past week:
Federal Activities
State Activities
Federal Activities:
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On September 9, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) published takeaways from its Digital Identity Tech Sprint — a collaborative event it hosts with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation — to develop solutions for financial institutions and regulators to help measure the effectiveness of digital identity proofing, the process used to collect, validate, and verify information about a person. For more information, click here.
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On September 9, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced its plan to add a crypto-related office to its existing Division of Corporation Finance’s Disclosure Review Program. The Office of Crypto Assets will review crypto-related filings and disclosures submitted by digital asset service providers. For more information, click here.
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On September 9, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler spoke at SEC Speaks 2022, asserting that he believes “the vast majority” of cryptocurrencies currently available on digital asset exchanges are unregistered securities. For more information, click here.
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On September 9, while speaking at SEC Speaks 2022, SEC Enforcement Director Gurbir Grewal voiced the SEC’s intention to continue to bring enforcement actions against crypto-related companies “regardless of what technology” the company uses. For more information, click here.
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On September 9, SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda spoke at the SEC Speaks 2022, issuing a call for crypto rulemaking. For more information, click here.
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On September 8, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy released a report, proposing that U.S. lawmakers and policymakers consider legal limitations or outright restrictions to reduce the environmental impact of crypto mining. For more information, click here.
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On September 8, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published a report, discussing nursing home debt collection. The report primarily analyzed nursing home admission agreements that attempt to hold the friends and family of a nursing home resident personally liable for the resident’s care. For more information, click here.
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On September 8, six individuals, including two Coinbase employees, filed suit against the U.S. Department of the Treasury in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. The lawsuit alleges the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (OFAC) sanctioning of Tornado Cash exceeded its sanctioning authority because Tornado Cash, as a decentralized, open-source software project, is not subject to the sanction authority of OFAC. For more information, click here.
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On September 8, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell spoke about stable coin legislation: “If people are going to think something is money, then it needs to actually have the qualities of money. If it doesn’t, then I don’t think you want to take money and make it into just another consumer product where sometimes it fails and sometimes it’s good.” For more information, click here.
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On September 7, Acting Comptroller of the Office of Currency (OCC) Michael Hsu discussed the long-term threats to trust in banking at the TCH + BPI Annual Conference in New York. Hsu restated the OCC’s goal to encourage banks to make its overdraft fee programs more consumer friendly. Hsu’s comments also included addressing crypto-related risks. For more information, click here.
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On September 7, while giving a speech at The Brookings Institute, Federal Reserve Vice Chair of Supervision Michael Barr stated that Congress should “work expeditiously” to pass stablecoin regulation. For more information, click here.
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On September 6, OFAC announced it will issue an expanded version of sanction guidelines originally signed by former President Barack Obama via Executive Order 13694, titled “Blocking the Property of Certain Persons Engaging in Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities.” The updated guidelines allow sanctions up to $311,000 or “an amount that is twice the amount of the transaction that is the basis of the violation.” For more information, click here.
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On September 1, U.S. Senators Bob Casey (D-PA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) issued a letter to the CFPB, requesting the agency to better protect consumers from peer-to-peer payment applications (P2P apps) scams involving Cash App, Paypal, Venmo, and other prominent P2P apps. For more information, click here.
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On August 30, the Federal Reserve released a discussion paper on decentralized finance products. The paper states that these products represent a small share of the global financial system, and they post a risk to financial stability. For more information, click here.
State Activities:
- On September 8, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced a settlement with an online ticket seller accused of violating Pennsylvania consumer protection laws. The company is alleged to have changed its refund policy for cancelled events during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic without notifying purchasers. According to the settlement agreement, the company will provide a full refund to certain Pennsylvania consumers, modify certain checkout processes, and clarify some unclear language on its website. For more information, click here.
