On June 6, 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced it filed a lawsuit against a third-party payment processor and two of the company’s executives over allegations the company permitted unauthorized withdrawals from consumer accounts, in violation of the Dodd-Frank Consumer Protection Act. The company facilitated ACH payment transactions between…
On June 6, 2016, the West Virginia Attorney General announced a settlement with a regional online lender over allegations that the lender’s business practices violated West Virginia’s Consumer Credit and Protection Act. The company markets and sells online installment loans, through an alleged “bank-partnership model.” Under the bank-partnership model, a company partners…
*Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared on our sister blog, Consumer Finance Enforcement Watch. Visit CFEW for more real-time reporting and data analytics on the full range of public federal and state consumer finance enforcement activity and the latest updates to our interactive charts.* For the first quarter of 2016, Consumer Finance…
For the first quarter of 2016, Consumer Finance Enforcement Watch tracked 50 enforcement actions taken against consumer finance providers, marking a slight increase from the 46 actions we had tracked a year ago in Q1 2015. Of the Q1 2016 enforcement actions, the majority were settlement agreements. Consistent with the…
On May 18, 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced its Spring 2016 Rulemaking Agenda, setting forth its current initiatives. In its latest installment of the semi-annual update, the Bureau highlighted its recent (or imminent) activity in several high-profile areas, including arbitration and payday lending. Below are highlights of…
Earlier this month, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a report analyzing consumer usage and default patterns for certain single-payment vehicle title loans (the “Report”). Vehicle title loans are loans issued to borrowers by non-depository lenders in exchange for a security interest in their vehicles. A unique aspect of vehicle…
In an opinion issued May 24th in two consolidated cases, a federal appellate panel for the Eleventh Circuit could not find an “irreconcilable conflict” between the Bankruptcy Code and the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (“FDCPA”) as determined by the district court in a putative class action brought by bankruptcy debtors…
On May 20, the Vermont Attorney General announced a settlement with an Arizona processer of internet payday loans, resolving allegations that the company violated the state’s prohibition on unfair and deceptive acts in commerce. This settlement represents the AG’s fourth and largest settlement against a similar entity. In the settlement…
On May 18, the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) announced a consent order with a debt buyer for purchasing and collecting on allegedly illegal payday loans made to New York consumers, in violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and New York state law. The settlement requires the…
On May 18, the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) announced a consent order with a Virginia debt buyer for collecting on illegal payday loans from New York consumers, in violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and New York state law. Between 2012 and 2014, the debt buyer…
On May 19, 2016, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it filed a lawsuit against a national mortgage company relating to the company’s participation in the Direct Endorsement Lender Program of the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insurance program. A qui tam plaintiff…
On May 17, the Federal Reserve announced the execution of a settlement agreement with a state bank resolving alleged violations of the National Flood Insurance Act (“NFIA”), 42 U.S.C. § 4012a(f), and Regulation H, 12 C.F.R. part 208. The Board of Governors asserted that where a pattern or practice of violations of the NFIA is found, civil…
On May 10, 2016, the U.S. Treasury Department released a white paper entitled, “Opportunities and Challenges in Online Marketplace Lending.” The white paper is the result of a request for information that elicited more than 100 industry responses, and it reviews the benefits and risks of online marketplace lending before making…
Today, the Supreme Court released its opinion in Spokeo v. Robins, vacating the Ninth Circuit’s decision and remanding the case for further proceedings. Our earlier posts on the case (here, here, and here) provide more detailed background on the facts of the case, but by way of short introduction, Spokeo…
Joe Yenouskas, a partner in Goodwin Procter’s Consumer Financial Services Litigation Group, will speak on a June 2, 2016 webinar about consumer finance class actions. His presentation will examine recent developments and trends in class action claims alleging violations of federal consumer protection laws governing the financial services industry, including…
On May 13, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it has reached a $64 million settlement agreement with a national bank relating to the bank’s participation in the Direct Endorsement Lender Program of the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Federal Housing Administration (FHA). The agreement resolves claims that were originally brought…
The CFPB’s assault on payday lenders is nothing new (see our coverage of the Bureau’s proposed Payday lending rules here and Enforcement Watch’s coverage of a payday-lending-based consent order here), but the Bureau has now gone international. CFPB v. NDG Financial Capital (Case No. 15-cv-05211), currently pending in the Southern District of…
On May 11, 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it is taking action against a Mississippi-based check cashing and payday lending company and its owner for purportedly “tricking and trapping” customers. According to the complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, the defendants…
On May 5, 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued long-expected proposed rules that will drastically limit the use of pre-dispute arbitration clauses in contracts for consumer financial products and services. First, the proposed rules would prohibit pre-dispute arbitration agreements that bar consumers from filing or participating in a class…
On May 5, 2016, Nebraska Attorney General (“AG”) Doug Peterson and the Department of Banking and Finance announced a settlement with unlicensed online lenders that allegedly engaged in unfair and deceptive lending practices through a tribal lending scheme. The Nebraska AG brought an action on May 4, 2016 against several online lending…