On August 21, 2015, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced that it had concluded its investigation into several related national banks regarding alleged violations of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. The Act prohibits certain debt collection activities against members of the armed forces. Before proceeding with judicial…
On August 12, 2015, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it, along with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), had entered into several consent orders with affiliated regional banks over allegations concerning consumer bank deposits. According to the consent orders,…
On August 5, 2010, the American Bankers Association (ABA) announced that it had sent a letter to federal regulators and enforcement agencies, requesting that they confirm in their “interagency guidance, updated exam procedures, and where appropriate amended regulations” that the burden-shifting framework used by the Supreme Court in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v….
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has set its sights on debt collection practices again. In April, we wrote about the CFPB’s $63 million settlement with a mortgage servicer, Green Tree Mortgage, in part for Green Tree’s alleged treatment of mortgage debt. On July 8, 2015, the CFPB once again demonstrated it was…
On July 21, 2015, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) issued a consent order requiring a national bank and its subsidiaries to provide roughly $700 million in consumer relief due to the bank’s practices relating to its credit card services and add-on products. The consent order states that a CFPB review of the bank’s practices…
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s recent action against two credit card vendors regarding credit monitoring and identity theft protection services is a reminder of the legal risks associated with certain add-on products. The July 1 settlement, in which the CFPB found that the vendors misled customers about the benefits of…
On July 8, 2015, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) announced that claims concerning a bank’s alleged debt collection practices in violation of the Consumer Financial Protection Act (“CFPA”) had been settled for over $200 million. According to the consent order, the bank “sold to debt buyers certain accounts that were inaccurate, settled, discharged…
On June 17, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced that it terminated foreclosure-related consent orders with three national banks, entered into amended consent orders with six other national banks, and decided to escheat at the end of the fiscal year any uncashed payments made under the Independent Foreclosure Review Payment Agreement…
On May 29, 2015, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) entered into two consent orders with a National Bank regarding the bank’s non-home loan compliance with the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (“SCRA”) and the bank’s practices in connection with non-home debt collection litigation practices. The OCC estimates…
On May 4, 2015, Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry, Federal Reserve Board (FRB) Governor Daniel Tarullo, and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Chairman Martin Gruenberg held the third in a series of outreach meetings to discuss with the public their efforts to reduce the regulatory burden on community banks…
The Federal Reserve Board recently made headlines when it repealed its Regulation AA to comply with the Dodd-Frank Act, leading some to wonder how, and to what extent, regulation of financial institutions might change going forward. But the federal agencies charged with regulating banking and credit activities have made it clear that they will continue to enforce prohibitions…
On June 24, 2014, in response to the “increasing volume and sophistication of cyber threats,” the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (“FFIEC”) began a month-long cyber-security assessment of 500 community financial institutions and credit unions. Announcing what it dubbed a “pilot program,” the FFIEC—a formal, interagency body made up of…