The CFPB has filed its opposition to the motion of the two trade groups challenging the payment provisions in the CFPB’s 2017 final payday/auto title/high-rate installment loan rule (2017 Rule) that asks the court to extend its stay of the compliance date until 286 days after their appeal to the Fifth Circuit is resolved.  The trade groups have appealed from the Texas federal district court’s final judgment granting the CFPB’s summary judgment motion and staying the compliance date for the payment provisions until 286 days after August 31, 2021.

In its opposition, the CFPB asserts that the trade groups’ have not established a likelihood of success or substantial case on the merits of their claim that the 2017 Rule was rendered void by the invalid Dodd-Frank Act provision restricting the President’s removal of the CFPB Director.  In addition, the CFPB argues that the balance of equities weighs against extending the stay.  According to the CFPB, the trade groups have not shown irreparable harm that would justify an extension of the stay because the payment provisions “impose only modest requirements on lenders” and they “have never established that their compliance costs would be significant.”  The CFPB contends that, on the other side of the balance, further postponing the payments provisions would harm the Bureau’s and the public interest in having the provisions’ protections take effect.

In their reply in support of their motion, the trade groups argue that the Bureau’s balancing of the equities ignores the trade groups’ irreparable harm, with the Bureau “superficially suggest[ing], with no evidence, that compliance costs are ‘modest.’”  They assert that the Bureau “still refuses to address [the trade groups’] declaration to the contrary, which explains why costs are substantial and significant.”  According to the trade groups, because of this balance of equities, they need only satisfy the substantial case on the merits standard.  They argue that they have met this standard because the constitutional issue is still before the Fifth Circuit on remand from the U.S. Supreme Court in Collins and in All American Check Cashing.