On January 30, 2020, the CFPB filed a complaint against a national bank in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island. The complaint alleges that the bank violated the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), 15 U.S.C. § 1601 et seq., TILA’s implementing Regulation Z, 12 C.F.R. pt. 1026, and the Consumer…
On January 27, 2020, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein (North Carolina AG) reached a settlement with an out-of-state payday lender for $825,000. The Attorney General obtained a consent temporary restraining order against the lender in May 2019 based on allegations that the lender was not licensed to operate in North Carolina, yet…
At the start of the new year, both California’s Governor Newson and New York’s Governor Cuomo proposed expansions to their respective state’s regulatory oversight of consumer financial services. Of particular note, Governor Newson’s 2020-21 Budget Summary (California’s Proposal) explained that the reason behind California’s proposed regulatory expansion is the belief…
On January 21, 2020, the Massachusetts attorney general’s office (Massachusetts AG) announced that it has secured $1.25 million from one of the country’s largest online lending companies to resolve allegations that the company charged excessive interest rates to Massachusetts borrowers in violation of M.G.L. ch. 93A and Massachusetts’ Small Loan Statute, M.G.L. c. 140 s. 96, which prohibits any personal…
On January 17, 2020, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) settled with several operators of a credit repair scheme for alleged violations of sections 13(b) and 19 of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 53(b) and 57b, Section 410(b) of the Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA), 15 U.S.C. § 1679h(b), Section 6(b) of the…
On January 16, 2020, the California Department of Business Oversight (DBO) announced it had reached a settlement with a point-of-sale lender to stop making illegal loans and refund $282,000 in fees it collected from almost 17,000 California consumers. In September 2019, the lender applied to the California DBO for a lender’s license. Upon review of the lender’s product and information, the California…
On January 10, 2020, the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) announced that, in concert with the New York Attorney General (New York AG), it had entered into a consent order and settlement with an unlicensed mortgage-lending business to resolve allegations that the business illegally made predatory, subprime loans in…
On January 9, 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had filed a complaint against a constellation of companies for allegedly requesting credit reports without a permissible purpose in order to deceptively market sham student-loan debt relief services to consumers, in violation of the Consumer Financial Protection Act…
On December 10, 2019, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) jointly hosted a workshop on accuracy in consumer reporting. The workshop was divided into four panels and featured a variety of speakers ranging from consumer advocates to industry representatives. Each panel sought to address the…
On December 11, 2019, PayPal, Inc. (PayPal) filed suit against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in the District of Columbia, challenging the CFPB’s Prepaid Accounts Under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (Regulation E) and the Truth in Lending Act (Regulation Z) Rule’s application to digital wallets. PayPal, Inc. v….
On December 11, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced it had reached a settlement with the remaining Defendants in an enforcement action against multiple related companies and their controllers involved in an alleged phantom debt scheme in which the Defendants pressured consumers into paying non-existent debts by threatening legal action…
On December 30, 2019, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada had ruled in its favor in a case against the operators of a mortgage scheme that deceived homeowners, which was filed in January 2018. Per the findings of the final…
On December 16, 2019, the California Department of Business Oversight (DBO) announced that it had entered into a consent order and settlement with an auto title lender to resolve allegations that the company violated the California Financing Law, Fin. Code Section 22000 et seq. Per the settlement, the auto title…
On December 2, 2019, the United States government submitted a brief to the Supreme Court urging it to deny review of a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling holding a provision of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) unconstitutional under the First Amendment. In the case in question, Gallion v….
On December 10, 2019, the FTC announced a settlement with a major for-profit university and its parent company to resolve allegations that they deceived potential students in violation of the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC Act), 15 U.S.C.§ 45. According to the FTC, the defendants used advertisements to attract students…
On September 30, 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it had filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland against a Maryland used cars dealership, and its owner and manager, for allegedly violating the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. The complaint’s allegations are…
On November 19, 2019, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office (AG) announced that it had settled its investigation into a used car dealership’s allegedly unfair and deceptive sales practices in violation of the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act. The AG alleged that the Massachusetts car dealership and its owner misrepresented material information about…
On November 22, 2019 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had filed a proposed stipulated judgment in the federal district court in the Southern District of New York that would resolve claims that a New York-based employment background screening company violated sections 605(a), 607(b), and 613(a) of the Fair Credit…
On December 5, 2019, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that a federal court in Texas has halted the operations of a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service provider that allegedly played a key role in robocalling consumers to promote a credit card interest reduction scheme that bilked consumers out…
Last week, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) each issued a proposed rule designed to clarify that interest rates that are valid when a loan is made remain valid when the loan is transferred or sold. Together, the proposed rulemaking would…