On April 22, the CFPB announced that it and the NY AG had filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York seeking to seize a $1.6 million home they allege was fraudulently transferred by the owner of a shuttered debt-collection scheme. According to the CFPB, after discovering the federal and state…
On April 13, 2021 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it reached a settlement with an online debt-settlement company to resolve alleged violations of the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA), 12 U.S.C. §§ 5531, 5536(a), 5564, 5565, and the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR), 6 C.F.R. Part 310. According to the complaint, the…
On April 13, 2021, the Minnesota Attorney General Office (Minnesota AG) announced that it reached a settlement with a California-based student-loan debt-relief company resolving alleged violations of Minnesota’s Debt Services Settlement Act, Prevention of Consumer Fraud Act, Minn. Stat. § 325F.69, et seq., and Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act, Minn. Stat. § 325D.43, et seq. The Minnesota…
On April 6, 2021, the Pennsylvania Attorney General (Pennsylvania AG) announced that it reached an agreement with a Texas-based debt buyer concerning a portfolio of student loan debt it purchased from a now-defunct for-profit college. According to the Pennsylvania AG, the debt purchaser purchased the portfolio of loans after the for-profit college abruptly closed in December 2018 due to…
On April 6, 2021, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it entered into a consent order with a third-party debt collection company and its former owner for alleged violations of the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA), 12 U.S.C. §§ 5531, 5536 and Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), 15 U.S.C. § 1692 et seq. The CFPB alleged that…
On March 19, 2021, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released its annual report to Congress regarding its administration of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). The CFPB and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) share government enforcement responsibility for the FDCPA, and work together to coordinate their respective efforts…
On March 29, 2021, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had reached a settlement with a California-based mobile banking app, resolving allegations that the company had misled consumers about their ability to access their funds and the interest rates they would receive on their accounts. As we reported in November of last year, the FTC alleged…
On March 11, 2021, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it is rescinding its January 2020 policy statement (the 2020 Policy) providing guidance into its enforcement of the “abusiveness” standard under the Dodd-Frank Act. Section 103(a) of the Dodd-Frank Act authorizes the CFPB to bring enforcement actions against…
On March 23, 2021, the New York State Department of Financial Services (“DFS”) announced that it had issued a report summarizing its findings on the compliance of the underwriting of a technology company’s credit card with fair lending practices and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (“ECOA”). DFS began investigating the credit card’s underwriter, a…
On March 19, 2021, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that it approved a settlement with a national mortgage lender concerning allegations that the mortgage lender discriminated against a consumer in violation of the Fair Housing Act (FHA) when it denied the consumer’s mortgage loan application. The consumer filed a complaint with HUD…
On March 16, 2021 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against a California-based student debt relief company, its owner, and manager to resolve alleged violations of the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act, 15…
On March 1, 2021, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a report titled “Housing Insecurity and the COVID-19 Pandemic” (the Report), which summarizes some of the relevant data and research on the impact of the pandemic on the mortgage market. The Report warns of widespread foreclosures once federal, state, and…
On February 25, 2021, the United States District Court for the District of Kansas issued an opinion granting summary judgment in favor of CardX, LLC (CardX), and found unconstitutional “a Kansas law that prohibits sellers from imposing a ‘surcharge’ at the time of sale on consumers who pay by credit…
On March 8, 2021, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that it had approved a conciliation agreement between a national mortgage lender and an African-American woman (the Complainant), resolving allegations that the mortgage lender provided an inaccurate appraisal of the Complainant’s home due to her race in violation of the Fair…
On March 4, 2021, Virginia’s Attorney General (AG) announced that it had reached a settlement with an open-end credit lender, resolving allegations that the lender violated the state’s consumer finance statutes. The AG alleged that from September 2013 through July 2017, the lender charged $100 origination fees on loans that were in…
On March 5, 2021, the Washington Attorney General’s Office (AG) announced that a Washington State court ruled against a student loan servicer, finding that the servicer violated the Washington Consumer Protection Act by engaging in unfair and deceptive conduct related to its representations related to a “co-signer release” program. The partial summary judgment order…
On March 3, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against a Chicago-based payment processor for alleged violations of the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA), 12 U.S.C. §5531 and 5536(a)(1)(B), the Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act (Telemarketing Act), 15…
On March 3, Virginia’s Attorney General announced that the state reached a settlement with a student debt relief company for alleged Virginia Consumer Protection Act (VCPA) violations. The simultaneously filed complaint alleged that from February 2015 through August 2018, the company misled nearly 2,200 student borrowers into purchasing student debt relief…
On February 2, 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit issued a significant decision holding that a putative class representative does not need to establish an administratively feasible method to identify absent class members as a pre-requisite for class certification under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure…
While it is early in the Biden administration, regulators are signaling that there will be a heightened focus on enforcement of consumer protection regulations. What should financial services companies expect in the year ahead in terms of government regulation and enforcement activity? Goodwin partners Tony Alexis (former CFPB), Bill Harrington…