On September 20, New York Attorney General Barbara D. Underwood announced a lawsuit against nine student loan debt relief companies, their financing company, and two individuals with leadership roles in several of the companies (collectively, “defendants”). The lawsuit alleges that defendants violated the Federal Credit Repair Organization Act, 15 U.S.C. §…
On September 7, 2018, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a settlement with a Georgia debt collection company and its principals over alleged illegal collection practices. In October 2017, the FTC filed an action against the defendants alleging violations of the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC Act), 15 U.S.C. §§ 45(a), 53(b),…
On August 28, 2018, the Ninth Circuit affirmed Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers’ decisions in two putative class actions challenging Citibank’s and J.P. Morgan Chase’s default servicing practices. In Stitt v. Citibank, N.A. and Ellis v. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., the Ninth Circuit concluded that Judge Rogers had correctly dismissed…
On August 10, 2018, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve (“Board of Governors”) announced that a national bank had consented to the assessment of a civil money penalty totaling $8.6 million pursuant to the Federal Deposit Insurance Act, as amended, 12 U.S.C. §§ 1818(b)(3) and 1818(i)(2)(B), for engaging in…
On August 10, 2018 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a final rule adopting changes to Regulation P to bring the regulation into conformity with its authorizing statute, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, 15 U.S.C. § 6801 et seq. (GLBA). The rule, which was enacted to reduce regulatory burden on financial…
On August 10, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced a settlement entered in the Western District of Missouri regarding the alleged unlawful origination and servicing of online payday loans. The Bureau filed suit against two individual and twenty allegedly related entities controlled by those individuals, asserting violations of the…
On July 26, 2018, the Northern District of Illinois granted a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) defendant judgment on the pleadings because plaintiff failed to allege a required element of his claim—the use of an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS). Pinkus v. Sirius XM Radio, Inc., 2018 WL 3586186 (N.D. Ill….
On July 26, 2018, the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) announced a multi-million dollar settlement with a Kentucky bank over allegations of unlawful banking practices in violation of Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act. According to the Consent Order, the bank made misrepresentations and failed to disclose certain information to consumers about…
On July 26, 2018, the Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania announced a lawsuit against five Pennsylvania mortgage foreclosure companies and two company owners for cheating consumers into signing contracts to have their mortgage loans modified—but never delivering the services paid for—in violation of Pennsylvania’s Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer…
On July 20, 2018, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) reached a $30 million settlement with a South Dakota bank over allegations that the bank had engaged in deceptive practices with respect to its overdraft services in violation of Section 5 of the Federal Trade…
On July 19, 2018, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had entered into a consent order with a lender and its subsidiaries, resolving allegations that the company violated the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) and Truth in Lending Act (TILA). The lender and its subsidiaries are financial services companies…
On July 13, 2018, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced a settlement with a debt collection company and its CEO for allegedly illegal debt-collection acts and practices. According to the CFPB, the company collected on consumer debts using various debt collection companies that allegedly engaged in unfair and deceptive practices in violation of…
On July 13, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it settled allegations that a Kansas-based debt collector and its CEO engaged in unfair and deceptive acts and practices in violation of the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) and Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). The CFPB alleged that,…
On June 26, 2018, the Third Circuit affirmed summary judgment in favor of defendant Yahoo, Inc. in a putative Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) class action, Dominguez v. Yahoo, Inc., because plaintiff had failed to provide any relevant and admissible evidence that Yahoo’s systems met the TCPA’s automated telephone dialing…
On June 28, 2018, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced entered into a consent order with a national bank, resolving allegations that the bank violated the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) by failing to reevaluate and reduce the annual percentage rates on consumer credit card accounts. The Credit Card Accountability…
One month after the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives voted to repeal of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB’s) indirect auto lending guidance under a Congressional Review Act challenge, President Trump signed the resolution to make the repeal official on May 21, 2018. The guidance, which Congress and the President have…
On June 13, 2018, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced its settlement with a South Carolina corporation and its subsidiaries over allegations that the companies engaged in improper debt collection and credit furnishing practices. According to the consent order, the CFPB found that the companies made improper in-person and…
On June 11, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had settled claims against an individual and his loan debt relief companies in connection with its coordinated federal-state enforcement initiative to target deceptive student loan debt relief scams, called “Operation Game of Loans.” Enforcement Watch covered a similar enforcement action earlier…
On June 14, 2018, the California Attorney General announced that it had entered into a settlement with a company holding nearly 35,000 private student loans across California. In the complaint, which was filed on June 13, 2018, the Attorney General alleged that the company had engaged in unlawful debt collection…
On June 7, 2018, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued an order dismissing administrative proceedings against PHH Corp. The dismissal follows a January 31, 2018 opinion by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (D.C. Circuit) reinstating the court’s prior interpretation of Section 8 of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA). According to the…