On May 17, 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) filed suit against an online lending platform, alleging, among other things, the use of dark patterns to induce consumers to pay tips and donations,...more
A bill before the New York State Assembly would, if passed, have major implications for a variety of financing transactions in the Empire State. Titled the End Loan Sharking Act, Assembly Bill 9585 would subject a variety of...more
Late last month, Councilmember Kenyan R. McDuffie introduced B 25-0609, entitled the Protecting Affordable Loans Amendment Act of 2023, that proposes to opt the District of Columbia out of sections 521-523 of the Depository...more
A California state court recently denied a preliminary injunction sought by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (the DFPI) in its long-running litigation against Opportunity Financial (OppFi)...more
Usury is the unlawful lending of money at unreasonably high rates of interest. So, what is unreasonable? And what happens if your loan goes beyond that amount?...more
In its April 2023 Opposition to the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) motion for preliminary injunction, Opportunity Financial, LLC (OppFi) presents a spirited riposte, drilling down into the...more
As discussed here, in April 2023, Colorado introduced HB 1229 that proposed to limit certain charges on consumer loans and simultaneously opt Colorado out of sections 521-523 of the Depository Institutions Deregulation and...more
On May 10, SoLo Funds, Inc. (Solo), one of the largest community lending platforms in the United States, entered into a settlement with the District of Columbia attorney general (OAG). The settlement resolves claims that the...more
California limits the amount of interest that may be charged on loans and forbearances. While that is the general rule, there are numerous statutory exemptions. One of those exemptions can be found in California...more
Does California's usury limitations constitute a "strong public policy"? Seemingly, that question was decided over a half-century ago by the First District Court of Appeal in Ury v. Jewelers Acceptance Corp., 227 Cal. App....more
On January 24, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit concluded that a district court did not abuse its discretion when certifying a class action. The lawsuit alleges an individual who orchestrated an online payday...more
In December, the State of Iowa and the Iowa Division of Banking entered into an Assurance of Discontinuance (“AOD”) with Transportation Alliance Bank, Inc. (the “Bank”) settling claims that the Bank charged usurious rates of...more
In Adar Bays, LLC v. GeneSYS ID, Inc., the New York Court of Appeals (the “Court”) held that the conversion price in a convertible option could be classified as interest thereby potentially falling under the territory of New...more
Most of us have heard the expression “Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered.” The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit did not slaughter the officials of the lenders in its November 16, 2021 opinion in Hengle...more
On March 23, 2021, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed into law Senate Bill 1792, enacting the Predatory Loan Prevention Act (PLPA) and capping interest at an “all-in” 36% APR (similar to the Military Lending Act’s MAPR) for...more
Recently, seven states (New York, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Minnesota, and North Carolina) and the District of Columbia filed suit in the Southern District of New York against the Office of the...more
On November 12, 2020, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) (until recently called the Department of Business Oversight) entered into a consent order with Allup Finance LLC (Allup) finding...more
On November 5, 2020, the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had filed a complaint against a Florida-based payday lender and its CEO in the Southern District of Florida. The complaint alleges that...more
The industry trade groups challenging the CFPB’s final rule on Payday, Vehicle Title, and Certain High-Cost Installment Loans (the Rule) have filed a motion for summary judgment. The motion follows the filing of an Amended...more
In January 2017, the Attorney General of Colorado filed two lawsuits against Marlette Funding LLC and Avant of Colorado LLC. Among other things, the lawsuits claimed that these two companies, as the online platforms for loans...more
A recently-released Federal Reserve Board article, “The Cost Structure of Consumer Finance Companies and Its Implications for Interest Rates: Evidence from the Federal Reserve Board’s 2015 Survey of Finance Companies,”...more
As previously reported, the OCC recently adopted a final rule (the “Madden fix”) designed to resolve the legal uncertainty created by the Second Circuit’s decision in Madden v. Midland Funding, which held that a non-bank that...more
On June 11, 2020, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals confronted the question whether an option in a commercial note that allows the lender to convert the remaining balance into the borrower's common stock at a 35% discount...more
The Second Circuit’s decision in Madden v. Midland Funding, LLC was announced in 2015. Since that time, there have been a number of cases brought based on the Second Circuit opinion, as well as recent regulatory proposals...more
A frequently asked question in the lending community is whether there is an established amount regarding the maximum late fee that can be charged for a late payment made on a loan in Arkansas. Unfortunately, the answer to...more