Last month, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued an advisory opinion on the attempted enforcement of time-barred alleged debt collection rights as to second mortgage loans. It is a violation of the Fair Debt...more
The regulatory authority of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) over the cryptocurrency industry has recently been challenged on a couple of fronts. One involves a lawsuit filed by the SEC against a Utah-based...more
If you thought we were finally done with indemnification litigation focused on residential mortgages originated before the financial crisis of 2007-2008, think again. Over the past year, the Federal Deposit Insurance...more
In February, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) proposed amending the Federal Reserve Board’s Regulation Z with respect to the amount of fees that credit card issuers are permitted to charge their customers for...more
5/19/2023
/ Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Credit Cards ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Late Fees ,
Proposed Rules ,
Regulation Z ,
SBREFA ,
Truth in Lending Act (TILA)
On May 5, 2023, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced the Crypto Regulation, Protection, Transparency, and Oversight (“CRPTO”) Act, which aims “to protect customers and investors in digital assets from fraudulent...more
5/12/2023
/ Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Digital Currency ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinTech ,
Investment ,
Investor Protection ,
New York ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Stablecoins
The Special Purpose Acquisition Company (“SPAC”) market is facing both a new set of rules and amendments to rules already in place under the Securities Act of 1933 and Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Last month, the U.S....more
5/4/2022
/ Capital Markets ,
Capital Raising ,
Initial Public Offering (IPO) ,
Investment ,
Investment Company Act of 1940 ,
Proposed Rules ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Safe Harbors ,
Securities Act of 1933 ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act of 1934 ,
Securities Regulation ,
Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs)
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a non-profit focused on fostering healthy communities, defines digital redlining as “major network providers systematically excluding low-income neighborhoods from broadband service –...more
4/13/2022
/ Broadband ,
Discrimination ,
Disparate Impact ,
Equal Access ,
FCC ,
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) ,
Internet ,
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) ,
Low-Income Issues ,
Notice of Inquiry ,
Redlining ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Rural Areas
Florida ends its legislative season without consumer data privacy legislation. Two legislative bills, SB 1864 and HB 9, were “indefinitely postponed and withdrawn from consideration.” Companies doing business in Florida can...more
Last week, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York dealt a major blow to mortgage investors in two parallel actions pending for the past few years. The impact proved to be fatal to one of the actions,...more
2/18/2022
/ Article III ,
Breach of Contract ,
Breach of Duty ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Deutsche Bank ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Investors ,
Mortgages ,
Representations and Warranties ,
RMBS ,
Standing ,
Statute of Limitations ,
Time-Barred Claims
Fannie Mae has reached a historic $53 million settlement with the National Fair Housing Alliance (“NFHA”) and local fair housing organizations throughout the U.S. to resolve racial discrimination claims concerning Fannie...more
Cryptocurrency continues to gain traction as a means of payment for goods and services. It recently made its debut appearance in the mortgage industry, as the concept of a “crypto-mortgage” came to life. A Miami-based...more
2/9/2022
/ Bitcoin ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Currency ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Loans ,
Mortgage Loan Originators ,
Mortgages ,
Popular ,
Real Estate Investments ,
Real Estate Market ,
Real Estate Transactions
Two major U.S. financial institutions, Morgan Stanley and Capital One, recently agreed to resolve separate class action lawsuits by paying, in the aggregate, hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation for massive data...more
1/7/2022
/ Capital One ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Class Action ,
Cloud Computing ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Data Protection ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Hackers ,
Identity Theft ,
Information Technology ,
Morgan Stanley ,
Personal Data ,
Settlement Agreements
Millions of homeowners have signed up for a forbearance under the CARES Act, which gives homeowners with a federally-backed mortgage loan the right to obtain a temporary reduction or suspension of mortgage payments by way of...more
10/12/2021
/ CARES Act ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Failure To Disclose ,
Fair Lending ,
Fannie Mae ,
Forbearance Agreements ,
Foreclosure ,
Homeowners ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Mortgages ,
PNC ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Relief Measures ,
RESPA ,
Statutory Violations ,
Truth in Lending Act (TILA) ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices
At the beginning of his term, President Biden declared that his administration would make it a policy to eliminate “racial bias and other forms of discrimination in all states of home-buying and renting.”...more
10/5/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Community Reinvestment Act ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Disparate Impact ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Fair Lending ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
First-Lien ,
Housing Market ,
Mortgages ,
OCC ,
Racial Bias ,
Real Estate Transactions ,
Redlining ,
Section 1071 ,
Settlement Agreements
If you thought Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (“LBHI”) was done suing lenders as a result of its settlements with RMBS trustees years ago, think again. ...more
Two more university tuition refund cases were recently decided at the pleadings stage, with mixed results for the university defendants. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled in the matter of...more
In one of the largest data privacy settlements ever, a California federal district court judge last week approved a $650 million settlement to be paid by Facebook to nearly 1.6 million Facebook users in Illinois. The...more
Business interruption insurance claims keep coming, cutting across a broad array of industries. The entertainment and media sectors are certainly not immune from pandemic-related losses. Last month, ViacomCBS became the...more
2/24/2021
/ Breach of Contract ,
Business Interruption ,
Business Losses ,
CBS ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Insurance Claims ,
Policy Exclusions ,
Policy Terms ,
Viacom
On February 15, 2021, Florida introduced House Bill 969, aimed at consumer privacy protection. A prior attempt last year by the Florida legislature to pass similar legislation failed to become law....more
2/23/2021
/ Cybersecurity ,
Data Management ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Data-Sharing ,
Florida ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Personal Data ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
State and Local Government
COVID-19 class actions continue to increase and are expected to spread to additional areas of law. Higher education has been one of the prime subjects of class actions thus far. To date, over 250 class action lawsuits have...more
2/10/2021
/ Article III ,
Breach of Contract ,
Class Action ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Educational Institutions ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Refunds ,
Standing ,
Tuition ,
Universities ,
Unjust Enrichment
In March, the Florida Legislature passed CS/HB 873, approving the Uniform Commercial Real Estate Receivership Act (“UCRERA”). First drafted in 2015 by the Uniform Law Commission, UCRERA has already been adopted by seven...more
A surge in repurchase claims against mortgage originators may be imminent as aggregators and servicers face nonpayment of debt obligations and liquidity shortfalls resulting from an increase in residential mortgage loans put...more
Last week, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (“LBHI”) filed two new motions in its ongoing Southern District of New York Bankruptcy Court litigation against approximately 130 loan originators and brokers...more