On November 17, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it entered into a consent order with a California-based mortgage servicer concerning its purported failure to provide certain borrowers forbearances and protections from credit reporting, as required under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). According to the CFPB, the servicer’s…
On October 19, 2022, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals (Fifth Circuit) held that the funding mechanism for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is unconstitutional and violates the Appropriations Clause of the Constitution. Community Fin. Services Assoc. of Am. Ltd., No. 21-50826 (5th Cir. Oct. 19, 2022). In light…
In the past few weeks, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (Ninth Circuit) has issued significant decisions concerning the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and its application to unwanted text messages sent to cell phones used for both personal and business use, and the constitutionality of…
In September 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a special edition of Supervisory Highlights regarding recent examination findings related to student loan servicing. The Supervisory Highlights focus on three sets of “significant supervisory findings:” (i) blanket policies to withhold transcripts in connection with an extension of credit are abusive…
On October 11, 2022, the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office (NC AG) announced that it had entered into a consent order with certain Texas-based debt collection companies, resolving allegations that those companies engaged in illegal debt collection practices in violation of various state statutes. In 2019, the NC AG filed a lawsuit in North Carolina state court alleging that…
On October 4, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it has issued a consent order against a nonbank provider of a money transfer service for multiple violations of the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA), 15 U.S.C. § 1693 et seq., and its implementing Regulation E, 12 C.F.R. Part…
On October, 4, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it reached a settlement with a non-bank remittance transfer provider to resolve alleged violations of the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA), 15 U.S.C. § 1693 et seq., and its implementing Regulation E, 12 C.F.R. Part 1005, including Subpart B (known as the Remittance…
In August 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published a circular confirming that, under certain circumstances, entities may “violate the prohibition on unfair acts or practices in the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) when they have insufficient data protection or information security.” The circular sets forth the CFPB’s analysis…
On September 29, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it filed suit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against an online lender and 38 of its subsidiaries for alleged violations of the Military Lending Act (MLA), 10 U.S.C. § 987, and its implementing regulation, 32…
On September 28, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it ordered an Alabama bank to pay over $190 million to resolve allegations that it charged its customers surprise overdraft fees between August 2018 and July 2021. The CFPB alleges that the bank was charging consumers surprise overdraft fees, known as authorized-positive fees, on…
On September 29, 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it reached a settlement with a Memphis-based bank to resolve alleged violations of the Fair Housing Act (FHA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 3601–3619, and Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), 15 U.S.C. §§ 1691–1691f, and its implementing Regulation B, 12 C.F.R. §…
On September 13, 2022, the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) for the Southern District of Texas announced that it had reached a settlement with a bank that served as a lender under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to resolve allegations that the lender violated the False Claims Act (FCA) in issuing processing a PPP…
On September 1, 2022, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it reached a settlement with a personal finance company to resolve allegations that it engaged in deceptive acts or practices in violation of Section 5(a) of the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTCA), 15 U.S.C. § 45(a). According to the FTC, the personal…
On July 28, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a Consent Order against a large bank (the Bank), claiming that the Bank created sales pressure on its employees that encouraged employees to illegally access customer credit reports and to open checking and savings accounts, credit cards, and lines…
On August 16, 2022, the Pennsylvania Attorney General announced that a group of attorneys general for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the States of New Jersey, Oregon, Utah, and Washington, and the District of Columbia (collectively, “the AGs”) had filed a multistate lawsuit against a personal lending company for allegedly charging consumers for “hidden add-on products” in violation of various…
On August 10, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it entered into a consent order with a California Fintech company for allegedly engaging in deceptive acts and practices in violation of the Consumer Financial Protection Act. According to the CFPB, the company offered an automatic savings tool to customers through which customers would grant the…
On August 3, 2022, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) announced that it had entered into a consent order with a Florida-based lending company that allegedly made “illegal loans.” Specifically, the consent order alleges that the company’s policy of making “buy now, pay later” arrangements for point-of-sale transactions qualified as “loans,” subjecting…
On July 27, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a complaint and proposed consent order in a federal district court alleging that a mortgage company intentionally discriminated against families living in majority-minority neighborhoods around Philadelphia in violation of the Fair Housing Act…
On July 28, 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 Truth in Lending Act (TILA), 15 U.S.C. § 1601 et seq., and its implementing regulation, Regulation Z (Reg Z), 12 C.F.R. part 1026; the Fair Credit…
On July 27, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that they reached a settlement with a nonbank residential mortgage lender to resolve allegations of race-based lending discrimination in violation of the Fair Housing Act (FHA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 3601-3619; the Equal Credit Opportunity Act…