On December 16, 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it entered into a consent order relating to a Seattle-based payday lender and check-cashing company’s allegedly deceptive online advertisements and collection letters. The consent order alleges that the company violated sections 1031(a) and 1036(a)(1)(B) of the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 (CFPA), 12 U.S.C. §§ 5531(a), 5536(a)(1)(B),…
On December 16, 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and Moneytree, Inc., which offers payday loans and other financial services, entered into a consent order that requires Moneytree to pay approximately $255,000 in restitution to consumers and to pay an additional civil money penalty of $250,000. The consent order concerns the CFPB’s allegations that…
On December 17, 2016, the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office (“Arkansas AG”) announced that it had filed a lawsuit against affiliated auto dealerships for violations of the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. The Arkansas AG alleged that these auto dealerships would submit loan applications to third-party lenders, who would then deposit…
On December 2, 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a status update regarding various initiatives that were proposed in its fall 2016 rulemaking agenda. The update provides readers with an overview of the CFPB’s proposals and observes that comments submitted in connection with a number of the proposals…
On November 23, 2016, the Second Circuit issued its opinion in Strubel v. Comenity Bank, a putative Truth in Lending Act (TILA) class action with both standing and substantive TILA implications. In Strubel, the plaintiff challenged the disclosures Comenity provided in connection with a retail store credit card. The opinion summarizes the plaintiff’s…
On December 7, 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had entered into consent orders with three different reverse mortgage companies concerning alleged violations of the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) and Regulation N’s prohibitions on making material misrepresentations as to any “mortgage credit product.” The first consent order…
On December 1, 2016, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the New York Field Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced the unsealing of indictments against five individuals for allegedly participating in a debt-elimination…
On November 23, 2016, Advance America, Inc., a payday lender, and Community Financial Services Association of America, Ltd., a trade organization which represents the interests of payday lenders (Plaintiffs), filed a Motion for Preliminary Injunction (Motion) against the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of Comptroller of the Currency, and the…
On November 30, 2016, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Florida Attorney General (AG) announced several settlements totaling approximately $27 million in an alleged fraudulent credit card debt reduction scheme. In a set of stipulated orders, all but one defendant agreed to monetary judgments, as well as bans on future telemarketing, selling debt relief services, and credit…
On November 30, 2016, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas announced that a federal jury in the Southern District of Texas issued a verdict finding several related mortgage companies and their CEO liable in connection with their participation in the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage insurance program. The verdicts were the result of…
On November 30, 2016, the Colorado Attorney General’s Office announced that it had secured a judgment in Colorado state court against affiliated lenders who operated an illegal auto title loan scheme. The companies allegedly used fictitious names in extending credit services, and allegedly charged consumers usurious interest rates for personal…
On November 28, 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced that it issued a compliance bulletin warning regulated financial companies about the use of employee incentive programs in providing their financial products to consumers. The Bureau advised that these types of programs, if run unchecked or with excessive sales goals,…
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) recently-released Request for Information Regarding Consumer Access to Financial Records (RFI) suggests that the agency is considering making a new rule to set requirements and protections for the use of consumers’ financial information. In publishing the RFI, the CFPB notes that the Dodd-Frank Act “provides…
In the third quarter of 2016, Consumer Enforcement Watch tracked 37 enforcement actions taken against consumer financial service providers. This represents a decrease from the 46 enforcement actions that were tracked last quarter and the 50 actions that we tracked in Q1. 25 of the Q3 enforcement actions were settlements…
On November 22, 2016, the Massachusetts Division of Banks (“DOB) announced that it has returned approximately $2.3 Million to 1,673 Massachusetts residents, as part of a settlement with an online payday lender. The payday lender allegedly issued payday loans with interest rates between 89 and 135 percent, and annual percentage rates (APR) between…
On November 22, 2016, the Massachusetts Attorney General announced that it entered into a settlement agreement with a national student loan servicing company over allegations the company violated various state and federal consumer protection laws. The investigation into the company’s student loan servicing practices began in December 2015. According to…
On November 21, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland against a structured settlement company and certain of the company’s principals, alleging that the company violated the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) by defrauding lead paint victims. According to the…
On November 18, 2016, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (“USAO”) announced that the co-owner and chief financial officer of a debt collection company, and a company manager, pleaded guilty to engaging in illegal and abusive debt collection practices. The Court also sentenced another company employee to…
On November 21, 2016, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and U.S. Postal Inspection Service announced that an individual defendant was sentenced for his participation in an allegedly fraudulent debt relief scheme. The defendant worked for two companies in Orange County, California that offered to settle credit card debts. According to…
On November 8, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Lightfoot v. Cendant Mortg. Corp., a case that will decide an important jurisdictional issue for Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA). See 769 F.3d 681 (9th Cir. 2014), cert. granted, 136 S. Ct. 2536 (2016). The question before the Court…