On April 9, 2015, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) announced a settlement with a California-based mortgage lender over claims that the lender engaged in deceptive advertising practices. The company allegedly mailed advertisements bearing the logos of the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Federal Housing Administration, ostensibly to give…
On April 8, 2015, the CFPB announced that it filed a complaint against a group of individuals and companies, alleging that they engaged in a false debt collection scheme targeting consumers in Georgia and New York. After obtaining consumer information from debt brokers and other sources, the group allegedly robo-called…
On March 30, 2015, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) announced that a California-based debt collection agency agreed to settle claims over alleged illegal and deceptive collection practices in violation of the Consumer Financial Protection Act (“CFPA”) and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”). The CFPB alleged in its complaint…
On March 26, 2015, the Massachusetts Attorney General announced that it obtained a judgment of nearly $1.9 million against a Massachusetts-based financial and legal services company on the ground that the company engaged in unfair and deceptive acts and practices. According to the lawsuit, the company had tageted consumers facing…
On February 12, 2015, the CFPB announced that it had filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland alleging that a Maryland-based reverse mortgage lender and broker disseminated deceptive and misleading advertisements for mortgage credit products, thereby violating the Mortgage Acts and Practice Rule, 12…
The DOJ announced a settlement of the first “buy here, pay here” discriminatory auto-lending lawsuit. The complaint, filed in January, 2014 by the DOJ, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina and the North Carolina Attorney General in the U.S. District Court for the Western District…
On January 30, 2015, the Arkansas Attorney General announced that Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza granted its petition to enforce a civil investigative demand against a Texas credit repair company, related to its investigation into whether the company’s representations, advertising, and pricing structures violated the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices…
No readers of this blog would disagree that the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act transformed the legal landscape for banks and consumer finance companies. In the area of enforcement, two of the Act’s most significant changes were (1) the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and…
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…