On February 7, 2018, Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring (Virginia AG) announced a settlement with a Virginia based online lender for alleged violations of the Virginia Consumer Protection Act. The lender allegedly offered closed-end, installment loans online and falsely claimed it was licensed in Virginia to do so. According to the…
The Trump Administration-appointed Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”), Mick Mulvaney, recently stated in a memo to his staff that under his leadership, the CFPB would significantly change in its approach to regulation and enforcement. The most concrete example of this thus far is his approach to the payday lending…
On January 31, 2018, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (D.C. Circuit), sitting en banc, issued its long-awaited decision in PHH Corp. v. CFPB, holding that the provision of the Dodd-Frank Act shielding the single director of the CFPB from removal without cause is constitutional. In all,…
On February 2, 2018, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the “Board”) announced that it would restrict the growth of a national bank based on its past consumer abuses and compliance failures and its need to remedy deficiencies in its management oversight of sales practices. The Board issued a…
On January 31, 2018, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (D.C. Circuit), sitting en banc, issued its long-awaited decision in PHH Corp. v. CFPB, holding that the provision of the Dodd-Frank Act shielding the single director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) from removal without cause…
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has solicited comments to assist it to revise its current Civil Investigative Demand (CID) process. The “Request for Information Regarding Bureau Civil Investigative Demands and Associated Processes” was published in the Federal Register on January 26, 2018. The CFPB’s power to issue CIDs is derived from…
On January 25, 2018, a Florida-based homebuilder filed its Form 10-K annual report with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), disclosing that its “mortgage subsidiary has been subpoenaed by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) regarding the adequacy of certain underwriting and quality control processes related to Federal Housing Administration (FHA)…
In August 2016, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California granted partial summary judgment to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in a federal lawsuit against a California-based online payday lender, its individual owner, its subsidiary, and a servicer of its loans (“Defendants”), where the CFPB alleged that…
On January 16 and 17, 2018, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released two statements signaling that yet more change is on the horizon for the agency. Close on the heels of similar announcements regarding potential changes to its Home Mortgage Disclosure Act and prepaid card rules, the Bureau announced…
On January 22, 2018, Colorado Attorney General Cynthia H. Coffman (“Colorado AG”) announced that her office has settled a lawsuit against two lenders. The Colorado AG alleged that the lenders charged predatory interest rates to Colorado consumers by lending money to consumers who had pending personal injury claims and then requiring those consumers to pay…
On January 17, the New York Attorney General (AG) filed a motion to compel a debt collection company and its owner to produce financial documents, business records, and other documents in a lawsuit alleging that the defendants were part of an illegal debt collection scheme. The lawsuit, which was filed…
On January 12, 2018, the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) announced the assessment of civil money penalties and consent orders against five national banking organizations over mortgage servicing deficiencies, resulting in a total monetary settlement of $35.1 million. In 2011 and 2012, the FRB initiated enforcement actions against ten firms, including the five against…
On December 22, 2017, four Democratic Senators, Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Kamala Harris (D-CA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), introduced a bill titled the “Accountability for Wall Street Executives Act of 2017.” The bill amends the Revised Statutes, 12 U.S.C. § 484, to arm state attorneys general and other law enforcement…
On December 19, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a motion to compel discovery responses and for the production of documents in a case the FTC filed against a student loan debt relief company and its owner in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The FTC claims that the student…
This December, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) released a letter to credit unions detailing its primary areas of supervisory focus for 2018. The NCUA intends for credit unions to rely on the letter to better prepare for their examinations by the NCUA throughout 2018. The seven areas of focus…
On December 8, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it had settled allegations that a Louisiana-based mortgage lender violated the False Claims Act (FCA) through its underwriting of Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured mortgage loans. In the lawsuit, which is pending in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, the…
On December 21, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced delays and potential changes to its Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) and pre-paid card regulations. Both sets of regulations have been subject to criticism by industry participants and others. Although lenders will have to comply with the CFPB’s HMDA…
On December 5, 2017, the Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union filed a lawsuit against President Trump and Mick Mulvaney over Trump’s appointment of Mulvaney as the Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The case, Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union v. Trump, et al., No….
On Tuesday, December 5, 2017, the U.S. Senate’s Banking Committee marked up the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act, S. 2155, which is bipartisan legislation set to repeal the Dodd-Frank Act. The bill is co-sponsored by twenty Senators–10 Republicans and 10 Democrats–and comes on the tails of the…
On November 29, the New Mexico Attorney General (AG) announced that, after a year-long investigation of a national bank, the AG will seek damages on behalf of thousands of New Mexico consumers for whom the bank had created unauthorized banking and credit card accounts. The AG announced that if he cannot reach a resolution with the bank,…