On October 30, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had obtained a stipulated order for a permanent injunction and monetary judgment against two individuals for allegedly using fake rental property ads to lure consumers to visit websites promising “free” credit reports. When consumers visited those websites, the individuals allegedly deceived them…
On October 20, 2017, the Ninth Circuit reversed the Southern District of California’s remand of a putative class action alleging that defendant Monterey Financial Services improperly recorded calls to individuals in California and Washington. In Brinkley v. Monterey Financial Services, Inc., the Ninth Circuit held that the plaintiff had not…
On October 12, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it filed suit against two debt-relief companies and their owners, and a third company that processed payments for and provided other services in connection the debt-relief providers. The complaint alleges violations under the Consumer Financial Protection Act of…
On October 17, 2017, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it obtained a $4.1 million default judgment from the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas against a phony debt collection operation that sold lists of fake payday loan debts to debt collectors. According to the FTC, the operation harassed consumers for debts…
On October 3, 2017, the U.S. House of Representatives’ Financial Services Committee conducted a hearing on possible housing finance reform measures titled “Sustainable Housing Finance: An Update from the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.” The hearing specifically addressed housing finance reform as it pertains to government-sponsored entities (GSEs)…
On October 5, 2017 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) revealed its final rule regulating payday lending. For the past five years, the CFPB had been doing research and seeking comments from the industry on how to address its concerns with what it calls “lending traps” associated with small-dollar lending….
On September 29, 2017, the United States Chamber of Commerce and various business and financial services groups (collectively, Plaintiffs) filed a complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, alleging that—for four independent reasons—the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) recently-issued…
On October 5, 2017, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office (AG) announced that it had filed suit against a federal student loan provider and servicer (and its subsidiary) in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, alleging violations of the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) and Pennsylvania Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer…
On October 4, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued an interim final rule amending a provision of Regulation X regarding the timing for mortgage servicers to communicate with borrowers about foreclosure prevention alternatives. On the same date, the CFPB also issued a proposed rule regarding timing requirements for…
As Enforcement Watch reported in late September, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) announced that it had filed a proposed consent judgment in the United States District Court for Delaware to resolve claims relating to the servicing and debt collection activities on a portfolio of about 800,000 student loans. Under the proposed settlement agreement, the student loan trusts…
On September 27, 2017, the Southern District of Florida dismissed a Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) suit against Burger King on standing grounds. In Gesten v. Burger King Corp., Case No. 1:17-cv-22541 (S.D. Fla), the Court joined numerous other courts finding that, where a FACTA plaintiff’s only alleged…
Consumer Finance Enforcement Watch has been selected to compete in The Expert Institute’s Best Legal Blog Competition. From a field of hundreds of potential nominees, Consumer Finance Enforcement Watch has received enough nominations to join the one of the largest competitions for legal blog writing online today. Now that the…
On September 29, 2017, the Texas Attorney General (Texas AG) announced that it reached settlement in the form of an Assurance of Voluntary Compliance with a lead generation company that directed business to a debt relief company that the Texas AG sued in 2013 for providing fraudulent and illegal debt-relief services. The…
On September 28, 2017, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (USAO) announced it entered a $3.6 million settlement agreement with a Utah Bank and its affiliated payment processor to settle allegations that the bank and its processor committed fraud by illegally debiting money for specific telemarketing and Internet marketing merchants (Merchants). The USAO’s settlement is the…
On September 28, 2017, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (USAO), along with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and HUD’s Office of the Inspector General (HUD-OIG), announced that they had reached a settlement with a national mortgage lender over alleged…
On September 27, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced that it had entered into a $760,000 settlement with two affiliated auto finance companies stemming from allegations that the companies violated the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (“SCRA”), 50 U.S.C. § 3901, et seq., by failing to obtain court orders prior to repossessing vehicles owned…
On September 27, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had entered into a consent order with a real estate settlement services provider for allegedly steering consumers to an affiliated title insurer without disclosing the relationship, an alleged violation of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), 12 U.S.C. 2607, and…
On September 18, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) announced that it had entered into a settlement and proposed consent judgment with a student loan owner and securitizer, and a separate consent judgment with the securitizer’s debt collector. The securitizer has a loan portfolio of approximately 800,000 student loans. According…
On September 19, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) announced a simultaneous complaint and proposed consent order with a loan brokerage company and two associated individuals (the “Defendants”). The Defendants are alleged to have made misrepresentations concerning the brokerage and the loan terms they offered to potential borrowers. According to the CFPB,…
On September 26, 2017, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey (AG) announced that she sued a Massachusetts used car dealership for allegedly using predatory practices to sell poor quality cars with high cost loans. The AG’s lawsuit asserts that the dealership violated the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act, G.L. c. 93A, § 4, by…