The first 100 days of the Trump administration have included dramatic changes at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which are part of broader shifts in financial regulation under the new administration. The agency has retreated from many of its enforcement litigations, initiated reductions in force currently subject to legal challenges in…
On April 14, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed lawsuits against two earned-wage access service companies. Attorney General James accused the companies, which allow consumers to obtain small-dollar advances on upcoming paychecks for a fee, of offering illegal payday loans that violate New York’s usury laws. These lawsuits come…
On April 14, 2025, the Massachusetts Division of Banks (the “Division”) announced that it had entered into a Stipulation and Consent to The Issuance of a Consent Order with a mortgage lender and broker operating in Massachusetts. The company, by and through a wholly-owned subsidiary, operated a website in which it provided…
On April 4, 2025, the California Attorney General announced that it had reached a settlement with a California-based realty company concerning claims that the company had violated California false advertising, unfair competition, and telemarketing laws and federal telemarketing and lending laws via allegedly luring vulnerable homeowners into a predatory contract scheme that caused homeowners to…
The Republican-led Congress has invoked the Congressional Review Act (CRA) in attempts to revoke final rules that former CFPB Director Chopra issued toward the end of Biden’s Administration. Under the CRA, Congress can repeal an agency’s final rule by passing a joint resolution of disapproval by simple majority vote. The…
On Tuesday, March 25, 2025, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) filed a motion in a suit brought by the New York attorney general against a major national bank seeking to withdraw a Statement of Interest the Bureau filed last year, which advanced a “novel” interpretation of the…
Although the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) voluntarily dismissed a slew of its own enforcement actions following Rohit Chopra’s removal as CFPB Director on January 31, 2025, the Bureau has affirmatively indicated its intent to continue litigating only a handful of cases so far. There were, by our…
On March 28, the FTC announced that it had named five additional corporate defendants and two individuals to its ongoing case against student loan servicers, which alleges the servicers and their operators mislead consumers into thinking they were receiving student debt relief and forgiveness. The original complaint alleges a Nevada-based servicer and its operator falsely…
On March 27, 2025, the FTC announced that an online cash advance company had agreed to pay $17 million to resolve allegations that it deceived consumers regarding the amount of money they could receive and the speed at which they would receive it. The complaint alleges the company, despite advertising that consumers could receive access…
As we recently reported, there have been rollbacks of consumer protections on the federal level, including the curtailing of enforcement activity at the CFPB. In response to this activity, on March 13, 2025, the New York Office of the Attorney General (OAG) announced its support of new legislation to enable…
In March 2025, a Northern District of Texas judge denied the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) motion to stay its case against Comerica Bank for alleged mismanagement of a government benefit card program in Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Comerica Bank. The CFPB filed this suit in December 2024, alleging…
On March 11, 2025, the New Jersey Attorney General announced that it had issued a Finding of Probable Cause for violation of the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination against a business that provides cash advances and loans to borrowers. The Finding of Probable Cause found that the business had a policy of…
On March 5, 2025, the Washington Attorney General announced that he had filed a complaint in the King County Superior Court against a licensed debt collection agency based in King County, Washington. In his complaint, the Attorney General alleges that the collection agency violated the Washington Collection Agency Act and the state Consumer Protection Act through its…
In a significant development, for the first time under Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Acting Director Russell Vought, CFPB litigators have informed a court that they have received authority from the Acting Director to continue litigating a matter. Since Rohit Chopra was removed as Director of the CFPB on January 31,…
Over the last four months, New York’s Appellate Division has finally begun to address constitutional challenges to the state’s Foreclosure Abuse Prevention Act (FAPA), an act that became effective in December 2022 and promptly generated disparate trial court interpretations about whether the law was supposed to apply retroactively. As noted…
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has experienced a flurry of activity over the past few weeks beginning with President Trump’s dismissal of Rohit Chopra as the Director of the Bureau on January 31. That same day, President Trump designated Scott Bessent, who had recently been sworn in as Secretary…
On January 30, 2025, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had entered into a consent order with an international remittance company regarding the company’s use of deceptive advertising for fee amounts and failure to properly disclose applicable fees, in violation of both the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) and the Electronic Fund…
The New York Attorney General entered into two related Consent Order and Judgments on January 16, 2025, the first with a financial company offering short-term loans to small businesses and the second with several of the company’s officers. The Consent Orders combine for an aggregate settlement amount in excess of $1 billion,…
On January 23, 2025, the New York Department of Financial Services announced that it had entered into a Consent Order with a Peer-to-Peer Payment Processor for alleged violations of New York’s Cybersecurity Regulation. This regulation requires all financial and banking entities operating in New York to establish and maintain adequate cybersecurity controls and protections…
On January 23, 2025, the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) announced that it reached a $2,000,000 settlement as part of a broader consent order with a peer-to-peer payment platform (“P2P”) about its cybersecurity practices. DFS contended that the P2P violated rules on Cybersecurity Policy, Cybersecurity Personnel and Intelligence,…