On May 11, 2021, in a 52-47 vote, the United States Senate passed a Congressional Review Act resolution to revoke the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s (OCC) True Lender Rule. The Congressional Review Act, passed in 1996, permits Congress to pass a joint resolution of disapproval that, with…
On November 10, 2020, the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs held a virtual hearing entitled “Oversight of Financial Regulators.” The presenting witnesses were: Randal Quarles, Vice Chair for Supervision of the Federal Reserve System; Brian Brooks, Acting Comptroller of the Currency; Jelena McWilliams, Chairman of the…
On October 2, 2018, the U.S. Senate’s Banking Committee held a hearing to review regulators’ implementation of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act (S.2155) since its passage in June. As framed by Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-ID), the law “right-sizes regulations for financial institutions, making it easier…
On April 17, 2018, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced that the Senate would seek to repeal the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB’s) indirect auto lending guidance. The Senate passed a joint resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act (CRA) on the following day, thereby sending the resolution…
On March 15, 2018, the U.S. Senate passed the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act (S-2155)–a bipartisan bill that LenderLaw Watch reported on as a piece of legislation to watch back in December. In general, the bill seeks to reduce compliance obligations for smaller financial institutions while maintaining…
On December 22, 2017, four Democratic Senators, Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Kamala Harris (D-CA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), introduced a bill titled the “Accountability for Wall Street Executives Act of 2017.” The bill amends the Revised Statutes, 12 U.S.C. § 484, to arm state attorneys general and other law enforcement…
On Tuesday, December 5, 2017, the U.S. Senate’s Banking Committee marked up the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act, S. 2155, which is bipartisan legislation set to repeal the Dodd-Frank Act. The bill is co-sponsored by twenty Senators–10 Republicans and 10 Democrats–and comes on the tails of the…
Three months after the U.S. House of Representatives voted on July 25, 2017 to block the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) Arbitration Rule, the U.S. Senate followed suit. On October 24, 2017, the Senate passed a joint resolution previously passed by the House disapproving of the Arbitration Rule with a 51-to-50…
On July 25, 2017, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to block the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) Arbitration Rule from becoming effective with a vote of 231 to 190. The vote was mostly down party lines and paves the way for the Senate to act to impose its own…
As LenderLaw Watch previously reported, on July 10, 2017 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released its Arbitration Rule, which blocks the use of mandatory arbitration clauses in consumer financial products and services contracts that prohibit class action lawsuits. On July 19, 2017, the CFPB published this Rule in the Federal Register,…
One month after the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee passed the Financial CHOICE Act, H.R. 10, with a 34 to 26 vote down party lines, the full House passed the bill on June 8, 2017 with a 233-186 vote. Once again, the partisan nature of the vote was clear,…
On December 21, 2016, the ranking member of the U.S. Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), sent a pointed letter to President-elect Trump’s nominee for Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin. The letter is an attempt to gain an understanding of Mr. Mnuchin’s views on topics over which…
The results of the recent election have led to speculation regarding what legal changes are in store for the consumer financial services industry and the CFPB in particular. Although President-elect Trump and other Republicans have made statements regarding “dismantling” the Dodd-Frank Act, few concrete proposals have been put forward. In…
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…
One of the most persistent and insidious threats to companies is cyber attacks. Whether these attacks involve theft of intellectual property, installation of malware, or denial of service, they pose a significant risk to businesses and their customers. For many companies, especially financial services companies, the risk is heightened by…
On August 1, Congress passed the Money Remittances Improvement Act of 2014 (signed by President Obama on August 8, 2014), which reduces regulatory hurdles and duplication between state and federal regulation of money services businesses. Specifically, the Act permits the Secretary of the Treasury to “rely on examinations conducted by a…