On May 18, 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced its Spring 2016 Rulemaking Agenda, setting forth its current initiatives. In its latest installment of the semi-annual update, the Bureau highlighted its recent (or imminent) activity in several high-profile areas, including arbitration and payday lending. Below are highlights of…
On May 26, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had entered into a consent order with a former loan officer of a national bank, whom the CFPB alleges increased the number of loans he sold by creating a mortgage fee-shifting scheme. The consent order alleged that the loan…
Earlier this month, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a report analyzing consumer usage and default patterns for certain single-payment vehicle title loans (the “Report”). Vehicle title loans are loans issued to borrowers by non-depository lenders in exchange for a security interest in their vehicles. A unique aspect of vehicle…
The CFPB’s assault on payday lenders is nothing new (see our coverage of the Bureau’s proposed Payday lending rules here and Enforcement Watch’s coverage of a payday-lending-based consent order here), but the Bureau has now gone international. CFPB v. NDG Financial Capital (Case No. 15-cv-05211), currently pending in the Southern District of…
On May 11, 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it is taking action against a Mississippi-based check cashing and payday lending company and its owner for purportedly “tricking and trapping” customers. According to the complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, the defendants…
On May 5, 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued long-expected proposed rules that will drastically limit the use of pre-dispute arbitration clauses in contracts for consumer financial products and services. First, the proposed rules would prohibit pre-dispute arbitration agreements that bar consumers from filing or participating in a class…
On April 25, 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced it entered into two settlements, available here and here, with a law firm and a financial services company over allegations the entities filed debt collection lawsuits without properly verifying the underlying debt obligations, in violation of the Consumer Financial Protection Act…
On April 21, 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it filed two lawsuits in federal court in the Central District for California against the founders of an online lead aggregator website, which allegedly sold loan applications to lenders and other companies without properly vetting the sources of the data…
On April 12, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard oral argument in the first appeal of a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) administrative enforcement ruling, which ordered a mortgage lender to disgorge $109 million for alleged violations of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act…
On November 6, 2015, State National Bank (SNB) filed a summary judgment motion in the United States District Court for the District of D.C., seeking a declaratory judgment holding that the CFPB is unconstitutional and invalidating the actions taken by Director Cordray during his 18-month recess appointment. See State National…
On April 1, 2016, the CFPB published its monthly consumer complaint snapshot. See generally, CFPB Monthly Complaint Rep., Apr. 2016. In addition to highlighting trends in consumer complaints received by the CFPB, the April report spotlights mortgage loan-related complaints. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the spotlight shows that 82% of the complaints received…
On March 31, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it entered a consent order with a student loan debt relief company, resolving allegations that the company violated the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA); Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR); and Regulation P, which implements the privacy notice requirements of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act…
On March 15, 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had entered into a consent order and settlement with a national student debt relief company over allegations that the company charged illegal and excessive fees. According to the Complaint, the company operated online student debt management websites that offered services related to…
On March 18, 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that a federal district court entered final judgment against a debt relief company over allegations the company charged illegal upfront fees and engaged in other deceptive business tactics. The CFPB filed suit against the company in 2013, alleging violations of the…
On March 7, 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it will begin collecting complaints from consumers about online marketplace lenders, signaling its intention to increasingly regulate the evolving and growing Financial Technology (Fintech) industry. The CFPB announcement emphasized that marketplace lending is “a relatively new kind of…
On February 23, 2016, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Richard Cordray delivered prepared remarks (click link for full text) regarding CFPB regulation of credit unions to the Credit Union National Association. The crux of Director Cordray’s remarks was that the CFPB has affirmatively decided not to exclude credit unions from CFPB…
On February 12, 2016, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a report to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau regarding its efforts to implement the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The full report can be reviewed here. According to the report, in 2015, the Commission: coordinated the first federal-state-local enforcement initiative targeting deceptive…
On February 23, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had entered into a consent order with a national bank, resolving allegations that the bank inaccurately reported interest rate information on credit card debts sold to debt purchasers, failed to remit payments made by consumers to debt purchasers,…
On February 23, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had entered into consent orders with a national bank, two of its affiliates, and two debt collection law firms over allegations that the debt collection law firms altered affidavits filed in New Jersey courts. The consent orders allege that…
On February 18, 2016, the CFPB released its final policy regarding the issuance of No-Action Letters (NALs). While some in the industry question the efficacy of the new policy, lenders and other consumer financial service providers should be aware of the policy so they can utilize it if and when…