On September 7, 2021, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had entered into a consent order with a group of affiliated education financing companies that provided students with income share agreements (ISAs) to finance postsecondary education. The consent order resolves allegations that the companies violated the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA), Regulation Z…
On August 24, 2021, the Virginia Attorney General (“Virginia AG”) announced that it entered into settlement with a Virginia-based lender and its managing member over allegations that the lender violated §§ 6.2-303 and 6.2-1501(A) of Virginia’s consumer finance statute. The settlement was filed as a consent judgment in the Circuit Court for the…
On September 1, 2021, the Massachusetts Attorney General (“Massachusetts AG”) announced that an auto lending company had agreed to pay more than $27 million to resolve claims that it engaged in unfair and deceptive auto loan practices. The Massachusetts AG alleged that the company made high interest auto loans to borrowers, despite the…
On August 31, 2021, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office (Massachusetts AG) announced that it reached a settlement with a Massachusetts-based debt settlement company to resolve allegations that the company violated the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act. The settlement resolves a lawsuit originally filed by the Massachusetts AG in 2018. In the complaint, the Massachusetts AG alleged that the…
On August 30, 2021, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that, together with Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), it reached a settlement with a bank, resolving allegations that the bank engaged in lender discrimination in the Houston, Texas area. In 2017, the OCC initiated a fair lending examination…
On August 17, 2021, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) filed a proposed settlement order that would resolve allegations that a debt collection company had violated the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA), the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and its implementing regulation, Regulation V, and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). The CFPB’s complaint, filed in…
On July 30, 2021, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that two final rules issued under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) will take effect as originally planned, on November 30, 2021, thereby scrapping a proposed delay that would have extended the effective dates to January 29, 2022….
On August 12, 2021, the Georgia Attorney General’s Office (AG) announced it had entered into a settlement with a debt collector, resolving allegations that the company violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and the Georgia Fair Business Practices Act (GFBPA). After conducting an investigation, the Georgia AG alleged that the company engaged in…
On August 12, 2021, the Massachusetts Attorney General (AG) announced a settlement with an online loan servicer, resolving allegations that the company engaged in abusive debt collection practices in violation of the AG’s debt collection regulations. After the AG’s Office conducted an investigation into the company, the Massachusetts AG alleged that the company, which…
On June 25, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court decided TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez, revisiting some of the Article III standing principles it had set forth in Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, 578 U.S. 330 (2016), and addressing their application to Rule 23 class actions. Keith Levenberg discusses this decision and its…
On August 9, 2021, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) announced that it had entered into a settlement agreement with a Tustin-based student loan debt relief company, resolving allegations that the company violated the California Consumer Financial Protection Law (CCFPL) when it collected illegal advance fees under the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR). This settlement comes as the…
On July 29, 2021, the FTC announced that it had reached a $450,000 settlement with the owner and manager of a group of auto dealerships. In a complaint originally filed in 2018 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, the FTC alleged that the owner, with his group of car dealerships,…
On July 29, 2021, the FTC announced it would be sending approximately $2.3 in refund checks to consumers who lost money in credit card relief schemes. The 7,786 refund checks average $293 each. The relief is part of a settlement the FTC reached with multiple defendants in two actions filed jointly with…
On July 12, 2021, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a consent order (the Consent Order) against a Fintech company that facilitates home improvement loans (the Fintech). The CFPB claims that the Fintech enabled “contractors and other merchants to take out loans on behalf of thousands of consumers who…
On July 12, 2021, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a settlement with two Florida-based companies and their CEO, resolving allegations that the companies aided a student debt relief scam by providing false or deceptive information in order to obtain merchant processing for the scheme. The settlement will permanently bar the two…
On July 21, 2021, the Mississippi Attorney General announced that it had reached a settlement with a national auto lender to resolve claims that the company placed borrowers into auto loans with a high probability of default. The Attorney General also alleged that the auto lender engaged in aggressive collection practices in violation…
On July 12, 2021 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that a consent order had been reached with an Atlanta-based non-bank lending company that would require the company to cancel up to $9 million in loans for consumers, resolving allegations that the fintech company violated the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) by originating and servicing unauthorized loans….
On June 28, 2021, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) finalized amendments to the implementing regulation of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), Regulation X, which would establish temporary protections for mortgage borrowers as the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) and various Federal and State…
On July 14, 2021, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) entered into a settlement agreement with a national peer-to-peer personal loan lender to resolve allegations stemming form 2018 lawsuit that the FTC had filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Pursuant to the settlement, the lender agreed to pay $18 million to…
On June 25, 2021, the United States Supreme Court issued a decision in Transunion v. Ramirez that provides further guidance on the thorny issue of class member standing. The case involved a class of 8,185 individuals whose Transunion credit reports contained an alert incorrectly labeling them as potential terrorists because…