On a July 19, the Federal Reserve Board announced it has issued a consent order against a Utah-based bank and its parent company for engaging in unfair and deceptive acts and practices in violation of Section 5(a)(1) of the...more
On May 16, the Maryland Office of Financial Regulation (“OFR”) announced a settlement with a Missouri-based bank and its fintech partners for engaging in unlicensed lending, credit repair, and debt collection activities....more
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
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 February 29, the CFPB issued a circular warning digital comparison-shopping websites and lead generators that practices that steer customers to certain financial products or services based on compensation received from...more
On January 2, 2024, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced “a sweeping consumer protection and affordability agenda,” what she termed as the “most significant expansion of consumer laws since 1980.” As part of that agenda,...more
On September 8, a Texas federal judge ruled that the CFPB exceeded its authority by adopting a sweeping anti-discrimination policy last year. The CFPB adopted the policy in March 2022, via an update to its exam manual,...more
Recently, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) approved the final rule implementing and interpreting certain sections of the California Consumer Financial Protection Law (CCFPL) that...more
On August 22, the CFPB filed a lawsuit against an installment lending company and several of its subsidiaries in South Carolina federal court, alleging that the company engaged in illegal “loan-churning” practices that...more
On July 26, the CFPB released its Summer 2023 Supervisory Highlights reporting unfair, deceptive, and abusive acts or practices (UDAAPs) across a number of consumer financial products, including auto origination, auto...more
On July 19, the CPFB filed a complaint against a lease-to-own finance company, alleging that the company has offered and provided millions of “lease-purchase” and “rental-purchase” financing agreements in ways that have...more
7/20/2023
/ Advertising ,
Consumer Contracts ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
False Advertising ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Misleading Statements ,
Misrepresentation ,
UDAAP ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices
On February 3, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois issued an opinion and order dismissing with prejudice the CFPB’s complaint for violations of the ECOA against a mortgage lender and its owner...more
2/20/2023
/ Borrowers ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Creditors ,
ECOA ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Fair Lending ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Mortgage Lenders ,
Mortgages ,
Non-Bank Lenders ,
Regulation B ,
UDAAP
On December 1, the CFPB and a financial services company filed a stipulated proposed court order seeking the resolution of a CFPB suit alleging that the financial services company made false, misleading, and inaccurate...more
On August 10, the CFPB issued an interpretive rule stating that digital marketing providers that are involved in the identification or selection of prospective customers or the selection or placement of content to affect...more
On August 11, the CFPB published a circular clarifying liability under consumer financial protection law for bank and nonbank financial companies that fail to safeguard consumer data. The circular describes how firms may be...more
8/19/2022
/ Banks ,
Consumer Data Requests ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Consumer Protection Laws ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Security ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Nonbank Firms ,
Rulemaking Process ,
UDAAP ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices
On July 11, CFPB Director Rohit Chopra drafted a blog post detailing the Bureau’s efforts to comply with President Biden’s Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy aimed, in part, to address the...more
Two weeks after the DFPI set a Dec. 9 effective date for its long-threatened commercial financing disclosure requirement (we discussed these regulations in a previous bog, here), the DFPI issued proposed commercial UDAAP and...more
On June 28, the American Bankers Association, Consumer Bankers Association, Independent Community Bankers of America, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce affirmed in a letter to CFPB Director Rohit Chopra that the CFPB should...more
On May 17, the FDIC and the CFPB took parallel actions to combat the misuse of the name or logo of the FDIC and deceptive representations about deposit insurance. The FDIC approved a final rule implementing its statutory...more
5/23/2022
/ Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Cryptoassets ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Deposit Insurance ,
False Advertising ,
FDIC ,
Final Rules ,
Misrepresentation ,
Name and Likeness ,
Stablecoins ,
UDAAP
On April 8, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) filed a cross-complaint against a Chicago-based FinTech company alleging that as the “true lender” of consumer installment loans, it is...more
4/29/2022
/ California ,
California Consumer Financial Protection Law (CCFPL) ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Cross-Complaints ,
Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinTech ,
Interest Rate Caps ,
Loans ,
True Lender ,
UDAAP
This week, CFPB Director, Rohit Chopra, appeared before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services in conjunction with the CFPB’s submission of its...more
4/29/2022
/ Annual Reports ,
Big Data ,
Big Tech ,
CFPB Director ,
Competition ,
Compliance ,
Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Enforcement ,
Investigations ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Transparency ,
UDAAP
On March 30, the CFPB settled with a student loan servicer to resolve allegations that the servicer made deceptive statements to student loan borrowers and misrepresented their forgiveness and repayment options, including...more
On March 22, the CFPB issued Compliance Bulletin 2022-05 regarding potentially illegal practices related to consumer reviews. The guidance states that consumer reviews impact company revenue and help consumers choose between...more
In a significant move, the CFPB announced on March 16 a revision to its supervisory operations to address discrimination outside of the traditional fair lending context, with future plans to scrutinize discriminatory conduct...more
On January 24, the CFPB issued a notice and request for comment in the Federal Register regarding the Bureau’s inquiry into “buy now, pay later” or BNPL providers. As discussed in a Consumer Finance and Fintech post last...more