Happy post-election, post-socially-distanced Thanksgiving, and pre-New Year’s newsletter. Banks, non-banks, and FinTechs can look forward to eight days of announcements from the Biden transition team with their latkes and...more
12/11/2020
/ Arbitration ,
Banking Sector ,
Bitcoin ,
BSA/AML ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Data Breach ,
Debt Collection ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
Fair Lending ,
Federal Savings Associations ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinCEN ,
FinTech ,
FRB ,
Main Street Lending Programs ,
Mobile Payments ,
OCC ,
Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) ,
SBA ,
TCPA ,
Third-Party Service Provider
The Florida Office of Financial Regulation (“OFR”) has rejected a petition for a declaratory statement seeking confirmation that payment processing activity involving the receipt of funds and transmission of such funds does...more
Developments in virtual currency regulation have been top-of-mind with recently announced initiatives from the New York Department of Financial Services. Companies engaging in virtual currency activity should also, however,...more
A year after issuing an invitation for comments, the California Department of Business Oversight (“DBO”) has finally released a much-anticipated draft rulemaking relating to the scope of the “agent of a payee” exemption (the...more
One of the defining aspects of the payments revolution of the past few years—at least from a regulatory perspective—has been the question of whether a particular payments service is subject to regulation as money...more
As we enter 2020, the payments and money transmission regulatory landscape continues to evolve on a state-by-state basis. One key development to kick off the year is newly adopted regulations in Massachusetts affirming that...more
The holidays came early for financial institutions when the Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge to the constitutionality of the CFPB. We can expect fireworks in the New Year as two experienced Supreme Court practitioners...more
Perhaps the biggest recent news in the ever-changing money transmission regulatory landscape is the draft model language for standardized regulation of multistate money services businesses that was proposed by the Conference...more
It seems like a natural progression for a company that provides any sort of payments-related information processing to migrate from handling data about payments to seeking to handle the payments themselves. But it can be a...more
We start this issue with a feeling of déjà vu all over again. Decisions made during the mortgage crisis are back in the news with a powerhouse legal ruling and the Treasury’s initial thinking on how to turn back time. First,...more
9/12/2019
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
BSA/AML ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Debt Collection ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
Fair Lending ,
FDIC ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinCEN ,
GAO ,
HUD ,
Libor ,
Money Laundering ,
No-Action Letters ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Secured Overnight Funding Rate (SOFR) ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
SHIELD Act ,
TCPA ,
Volcker Rule
The fireworks have started early this year. On May 2, a federal court in New York rejected the OCC’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought by the NY DFS challenging the OCC’s fintech charter. The decision has something for...more
6/18/2019
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
BSA/AML ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Fair Lending ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinTech ,
OCC ,
TCPA ,
UDAP
On May 28, 2019, a Nevada resident, Morgan Rockcoons, was sentenced in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California to 21 months in prison for wire fraud and unlicensed money transmission. In connection...more
On May 9, 2019, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued a guidance, Application of FinCEN’s Regulations to Certain Business Models Involving Convertible Virtual Currencies (CVC) (“Guidance”), together with...more
Last year, we noted that the Banking Department of the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation had taken the position that its money transmission law “does not exempt a payment processor or an agent of a payee from [money...more
On April 18, 2019, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued a press release announcing a civil money penalty for violations of the Bank Secrecy Act’s (“BSA”) anti-money laundering (“AML”) compliance program...more
With one eye on the New York Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”) cybersecurity rules and the other on two of its own Commissioners who dissented, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) has proposed a sweeping overhaul to...more
The California Department of Business Oversight (DBO) has issued an Invitation for Comments (“Invitation”) relating to the scope of the “agent of a payee” exemption under the Money Transmission Act, Cal. Fin. Code §2000 et...more
The payments and money transmission regulatory landscape continues to evolve. A key new development is that Michigan has affirmed by legislation that “agent of a payee” transactions meeting certain criteria are not subject...more
In between holiday shopping and merriment, we here at the Financial Services Report are pondering what’s in a name. Not much, said Shakespeare. Isaac Asimov begged to differ in a mystery story about who killed one of the...more
12/12/2018
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Auto-Dialed Calls ,
BSA/AML ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Fair Lending ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinCEN ,
HMDA ,
Lenders ,
Mortgages ,
OCC ,
Opt-Outs ,
Payday Lending Rule ,
Privacy Laws ,
SCOTUS ,
TCPA
EDITOR’S NOTE -
So much for the lazy days of summer. It’s been a busy couple of months on both coasts. In a case of déjà vu all over again, a New York federal court found that the CFPB structure is unconstitutional and that...more
9/12/2018
/ Arbitration ,
BSA/AML ,
Consent Order ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
Fair Lending ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinTech ,
Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act) ,
Mortgages ,
OCC ,
RMBS ,
TCPA ,
U.S. Treasury ,
Volcker Rule
As we have noted on multiple occasions, one of the most important questions in the non-bank payments revolution — at least from a regulatory perspective — is whether a particular payments service is subject to regulation as...more
The Banking Department of the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation (the “Banking Department”) recently entered into a consent order with a money transmission licensing applicant (the “Applicant”). The consent order...more
On May 14, 2018, the Office of the South Carolina Attorney General (“AG”) issued a press release announcing that it has created a Money Services Division (“Division”) within the AG’s office and that, effective May 14, the...more
The 2018 Winter Olympics are over. We watched two 17-year-olds win gold medals in sports that didn’t exist when we were 17. The Garlic Girls, with nicknames from their favorite breakfasts, and the U.S. men’s team won medals...more
3/13/2018
/ Arbitration ,
BSA/AML ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Cybersecurity ,
Fair Lending ,
FDIC ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinTech ,
Prepaid Payment Products ,
Restitution ,
TCPA ,
Vicarious Liability
With corporate data security breaches on the rise, the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has adopted rules requiring financial institutions to take certain measures to safeguard their data and inform...more
4/11/2017
/ Audits ,
Compliance Dates ,
Covered Entities ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Data Security ,
Encryption ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Incident Response Plans ,
NYDFS ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Risk Assessment