Goodwin’s Consumer Finance Insights (CFI) monitors, reports, and analyzes the latest legal news, activity, and developments impacting the consumer finance industry. Consumer financial services companies—whether banks, fintechs, nonbank and alternative lenders, payment providers, or industry vendors or service providers, like digital advertisers and lead generators—face a constantly shifting and maturing regulatory and legal landscape. Growing from the Financial Crisis, today more than any time in history the consumer finance industry must confront a robust and growing body of industry legislation and regulation, all while under the microscope of sophisticated enforcers, like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and state regulators and attorneys general. It is critical for in-house and outside corporate counsel, compliance departments, and business executives to stay informed and aware of these developments to navigate institutional, reputational, and legal risks. Goodwin’s CFI is a singular source of the most recent industry news and latest enforcement activity for you to leverage. Here, you will find links to original enforcement documents, enforcement activity statistics, and reports, analysis, and commentary from Goodwin’s leading Consumer Financial Services Litigation and Enforcement practitioners.

Goodwin Year-In-Review Confirms 2022 Was a Regulatory Harbinger of What is in Store for The Consumer Finance Industry In 2023

Global law firm Goodwin today announced the release of its seventh annual Consumer Finance Year in Review. Produced by the firm’s Consumer Financial Services Litigation and Enforcement + Government Investigations practices, and authored by partners Anthony Alexis, Sabrina Rose-Smith, Kyle Tayman, Levi Swank, Matt Riffee, and Christina Hennecken, the in-depth…

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FDIC Issues Cease and Desist Letters to Four Entities

​On February 15, 2023, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) announced ​that it has issued letters to four entities demanding that they cease and desist from certain statements they made about FDIC deposit insurance. The entities consist of a cryptocurrency exchange, a non-bank financial provider, and two websites. The FDIC alleges that…

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Minnesota Attorney General Enters Into $20,000 Settlement with Student-Loan Debt Relief Company

On February 14, 2023, the Minnesota Attorney General (AG) announced a se​​​ttlement​ with a California-based student-loan debt relief company to resolve allegations that the company operated a fraudulent student loan debt forgiveness scheme. The AG alleged that the company violated Minnesota’s Debt Settlement Services Act, Minn. Stat. §§ 332B.03-.12, the Prevention of Consumer Fraud Act, Minn. Stat. §…

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Court Dismisses CFPB’s ECOA Action Alleging Discrimination Against Prospective Applicants Against Nonbank Lender

On February 3, 2023, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois granted Defendants Townstone Financial, Inc., a mortgage broker/lender, and Barry Sturner’s, Townstone’s owner, motion to dismiss the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB or Bureau) redlining complaint brought under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), ECOA’s…

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Massachusetts AG Enters Into $7.6 Million Settlement With Auto Dealer

On February 2, 2023, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office (Massachusetts AG) announced that it had entered into a settlement with an auto dealer to resolve allegations that the company engaged in illegal auto loan collection practices in violation of the state’s consumer protection laws. Specifically, the Massachusetts AG alleges that…

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CFPB Seeks Dismissal of Complaint Filed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Challenging the CFPB's Update to the UDAAP Section of Its Examination Manual

On December 23, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) moved for dismissal, or in the alternative partial summary judgment, of the complaint filed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in September 2022 in the Eastern District of Texas that challenges the CFPB’s update to the Unfair, Deceptive, or Abusive…

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CFPB Proposes Rule That Nonbanks Must Publicly Register with CFPB When They Use Certain Terms and Conditions in Form Contracts

On January 11, 2023 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) proposed a rule (“Proposed Rule”) that would require “most nonbanks subject to the Bureau’s supervisory authority” to “register annually in [a] system” that is created and operated by the CFPB when their form contracts “use certain terms or conditions that…

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CFPB Reaches Proposed Settlement With Financial Service Company for Allegedly Offering Fake High-Yield Bank Accounts

On December 1, 2022 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had reached a proposed settlement ​with a Delaware-based financial services company to resolve allegations it made false representations to consumers in violation of the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA). In the underlying complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern…

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CFPB and New York AG Announce Joint Enforcement Action Against Auto Lender

On January 4, 2023, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and New York State Office of the Attorney General (NY AG) announced a joint enforcement action against one of the country’s largest publicly-traded indirect auto lenders. The 8​​​​-count complaint​, filed in the United States District Court for the ​Southern District of New York,…

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Massachusetts AG Settles with Mortgage Servicer for $975,000

​On December 22, 2022, the Massachusetts Attorney General (AG) announced ​a settlement ​with a South Carolina mortgage servicing company ​to resolve allegations that the company violated state mortgage servicing and debt collection laws. ​​​​ ​After an investigation, the AG alle​ged that the servicer did not take “reasonable steps” to help borrowers avoid foreclosures…

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CFPB Proposes Rule That Nonbanks Subject to Certain Public Orders Must Publicly Register with CFPB As a Means of Detecting “Repeat Offenders”

On December 12, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) proposed a rule (“Proposed Rule”) that would require non-bank financial institutions to register with the CFPB when they become subject to certain final public orders by a Federal, State, or local government agency in connection with the offering or provision…

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CFPB Files Certiorari Petition With the U.S. Supreme Court Seeking Review of the Fifth Circuit’s Decision in Community Fin. Services

On November 15, 2022, less than one month after the Fifth Circuit panel’s decision in Community Fin. Services Assoc. of Am. Ltd., No. 21-50826 (5th Cir. Oct. 19, 2022) and more than two months before its 90-day deadline, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) filed a certiorari petition with the…

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CFPB Reaches $3.7 Billion Settlement With National Bank to Resolve Alleged UDAAP Violations

On December 20, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had entered into a consent order with a large national bank to resolve alleged violations of the Consumer Financial Protection Act’s (CFPA) prohibition of unfair, deceptive, and abusive acts or practices, 12 U.S.C. §§ 5531 and 5536. According to the…

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Colorado Attorney General Reaches Settlement with Affiliated Lender and Debt Management Company

​On December 14, 2022, the Colorado Attorney General (AG) announced ​that it entered into a consent order​ with a California-based debt management company and its sister lending company, resolving the AG’s examination findings that those companies violated Colorado’s Uniform Consumer Credit Code, C.R.S. § 5-1-101, et seq. (“UCCC”) and Debt Management Services Act, C.R.S. § 5-19-201…

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Pennsylvania AG Sues Lead Generators For Deceptive Ads

On November 2, 2022, the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that a group of companies offering lead generation services violated the Telemarketing Sales Rule (“TSR”), 16 C.F.R. Part 310, and Pennsylvania consumer protection law, 73 P.S. §§ 201-3 and 201-4, by engaging in…

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Minnesota AG Enters into Consent Order with Student Debt Relief Company

On November 18, 2022, the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office (Minnesota AG) announced that it entered into a consent order with a California student-loan debt-relief company to resolve allegations that the company illegally collected fees from customers and mispresented its services to consumers. According to the Minnesota AG, the company “falsely promised consumers student-loan…

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