On August 2, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had entered into a consent order with a national bank, resolving allegations as to the bank’s allegedly unlawful credit reporting activities. According to the CFPB, the bank violated several federal laws with respect to its reporting practices, including the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15…
On August 1, 2017, the Virginia Attorney General’s Office (AG) announced that it had entered into a consent order with a state pawnbroker, settling allegations that the company overcharged consumers and was “skirting laws.” According to the AG, the company was in the business of offering consumers small dollar loans in exchange for the…
On July 27, 2017, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office (Massachusetts AG) announced that it entered into a consent judgment with the largest debt collection law firm in the state and two of its principals. The agreed consent judgment, which asserted violations of the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act, G.L. chapter 93A, section 2, was entered in…
On July 27, 2017, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office (Arizona AG) announced that it had obtained a judgment against an allegedly fraudulent mortgage relief company and its owner. The company is alleged to have targeted homeowners who were considering defaulting on “upside down” mortgages. The company purportedly promised to take over…
On July 20, 2017, acting United States Attorney Stephen Muldrow announced a civil settlement with the owner of a Florida condominium complex over fraudulent reverse mortgage transactions. Defendant had been accused of violating the False Claims Act (“FCA”) and the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (“FIRREA”). The Federal…
On July 10, 2017, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida entered a temporary restraining order (“TRO”) halting operations and freezing the assets of a debt collection operation, at the request of the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”). The FTC charged the defendant company and individuals with violating Section 5(a)…
On July 11, 2017, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton secured a $25 million judgment and permanent injunction against a portfolio management company and a small law office for violations of the Texas Debt Collection Act, Texas Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act, and Identity Theft Protection and Enforcement Act. A jury in the District Court of…
On July 25, 2017, the Virginia Attorney General’s Office (Virginia AG) announced that it had reached a settlement with a small-dollar open-end credit lender. According to the Virginia AG, the lender offered open-end cash advances, both at a storefront and online, through short term loans with interest rates as high as…
On July 17, 2017, a New Jersey federal district court heard oral arguments in a motion to dismiss a putative class action lawsuit alleging violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”), 15 U.S.C. § 1681a et seq. The FCRA claim in the case, In re: Horizon Healthcare Services Inc. Data Breach Litigation,…
As LenderLaw Watch previously reported, on July 10, 2017 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released its Arbitration Rule, which blocks the use of mandatory arbitration clauses in consumer financial products and services contracts that prohibit class action lawsuits. On July 19, 2017, the CFPB published this Rule in the Federal Register,…
On June 27, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published a state-by-state breakdown of consumer complaints that have been filed with the CFPB. The snapshot—which is contained in the June 2017 edition of the CFPB’s Monthly Complaint Report—compiled data from the CFPB’s Consumer Complaint Database about the number of…
On July 13, 2017, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office (“Massachusetts AG”) announced that it obtained a preliminary injunction against a debt collection law firm and its principal attorney. The Massachusetts AG alleged that the law firm engaged in unlawful collection practices, in violation of the Massachusetts AG’s debt collection regulations. The law firm collected debts for…
On July 11, 2017, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that its Mortgagee Review Board had suspended a national mortgage lender from originating and underwriting new mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). HUD’s Departmental Enforcement Center also banned the lender’s owner from doing business with the federal…
On July 10, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced the release of its anticipated Arbitration Rule, opening the door for more consumer class actions against financial institutions concerning financial products and services. Many consumer contracts, such as credit card and bank agreements, contain mandatory arbitration clauses. These clauses…
Last week, the District of New Jersey issued a noteworthy opinion in a putative TCPA class action against TD Bank and Target. In Martinez v. TD Bank USA, N.A. et al., 2017 WL 2829601 (D.N.J. June 30, 2017), the court held the defendants were entitled to summary judgment because the…
On July 3, 2017, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the HUD Office of Inspector General (HUD-OIG), the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California announced that they had reached a settlement with a national mortgage lender, resolving…
On June 27, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it filed two complaints and proposed final judgments against four California-based credit repair companies for misleading consumers and charging illegal fees. The CFPB alleged that the companies charged illegal advance fees for credit repair services and misrepresented their ability to repair…
On June 30, 2017, the Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Virginia (Virginia AG) announced that it had entered into a proposed consent order to resolve an action filed in Richmond City Circuit Court against a Virginia-based pawn broker that allegedly assessed excessive fees, made motor-vehicle-secured loans without a title loan license, and charged illegal interest…
One month after the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee passed the Financial CHOICE Act, H.R. 10, with a 34 to 26 vote down party lines, the full House passed the bill on June 8, 2017 with a 233-186 vote. Once again, the partisan nature of the vote was clear,…
On June 21, 2017, a federal judge in the Western District of Wisconsin accepted a Stipulated Final Judgment and Order (“Stipulated Judgment“) based on an agreement between the CFPB and the bankruptcy trustee of a now defunct mortgage relief law firm. The Stipulated Judgment comes three years after the CFPB…