On November 24, 2015, Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee released a report sharply criticizing the CFPB’s methodology for enforcing the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) with regard to indirect automobile lending. The report, entitled, “Unsafe at Any Bureaucracy: CFPB Junk Science and Indirect Auto Lending,” adds to the…
The US Supreme Court’s October 2015 term includes three cases that may have important implications for class action litigation: Spokeo Inc. v. Robins et al., 13-1339, Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez, 14-857, and Tyson Foods, Inc. v. Bouaphakeo, 14-1146. In each case, the Court will consider a procedural question whose answer…
From origination through final payoff, plaintiffs’ counsel look for claims in just about every aspect of the relationship between borrowers and their mortgage lenders. Recently, scrutiny has turned to property inspections carried out during default servicing. Plaintiffs’ lawyers have filed several class-action suits alleging that inspection fees violate mortgage terms, state…
On Friday, November 13, LenderLaw Watch celebrated its first birthday! On behalf of our bloggers and all of us at Goodwin Procter‘s Consumer Financial Services Litigation Practice, we want to mark the happy occasion by saying thank you to our readers! We look forward to another year of trend tracking…
A month has passed since the new TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure (“TRID” or “Know Before You Owe”) requirements went into effect on October 3, 2015, and while the transition has not been completely smooth, it has gone better than many expected. Below is a recap of some of the issues that…
Sabrina Rose-Smith, a partner in Goodwin Procter’s Consumer Financial Services Litigation Practice will speak November 5, 2015 at the Payday Loan Bar Association Annual Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona. This Annual Meeting is the yearly review of legal developments in payday lending, and Goodwin Procter is a sponsor. Sabrina will discuss…
In August, the CFPB issued a compliance bulletin to clarify lenders’ obligations to terminate Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) charges under 12 U.S.C. § 4902. One subject that the bulletin did not address—but which is somewhat ambiguous—is how to calculate when PMI must be terminated after a loan is modified. Unless a borrower…
Earlier this month, the CFPB announced that it may propose rules designed to curtail or eliminate class-action waivers from arbitration clauses. Arbitration clauses appear in most financial-services contracts to provide both parties with a cheaper alternative to litigation. Dubbing such clauses “a free pass [to] sidestep the legal system, avoid…
**EDITOR’S NOTE: This post was guest-authored by Goodwin Procter partner Joe Yenouskas and associate Alyssa Sussman. Both are members of Goodwin Procter’s Consumer Financial Services Litigation Group.** A series of putative class actions have been filed recently in New York federal courts by borrowers alleging that their mortgage satisfactions were not timely…
The CFPB issued a new report on September 29, 2015, making clear that it is targeting student loan servicing for a set of industry-wide reforms. Servicers should be on notice that the CFPB is reviewing new standards for them to follow. The CFPB report is the result of a public inquiry…
Whole Foods Market Group, Inc. (Whole Foods) recently settled a putative class action relating to Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) disclosures that were allegedly deficient. In Speer v. Whole Foods Market Group, Inc., the plaintiff—a Whole Foods employee—filed suit in the United States District Court for the Middle District of…
Arguably the most pressing topic at this year’s Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Regulatory Compliance Conference (held on September 20-22, 2015 in Washington, D.C.) was the implementation of the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure (TRID) Rule, which will take effect on October 3, 2015. While industry leaders at the conference generally seemed to accept…
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently issued a citation to First National Bank Corporation (FNB) under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), 47 U.S.C. § 227, for engaging in telemarketing practices with its Apple Pay and online banking services without the “express written consent” of the consumer. As previously covered…
*Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared on our sister blog, Consumer Finance Enforcement Watch. Visit CFEW for more real-time reporting on the full range of public federal and state consumer finance enforcement activity.* For the second quarter of 2015, Consumer Finance Enforcement Watch tracked 56 enforcement actions taken against consumer finance providers,…
David Permut, a partner in Goodwin Procter’s Consumer Financial Services Litigation Practice will be a panelist September 20, 2015 at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Regulatory Compliance Conference in Washington DC. Permut’s panel will be reviewing claims against the mortgage industry, including buybacks and repurchases, claims related to MERS, UDAAPs and claims…
A U.S. District Judge in the Northern District of Illinois recently granted summary judgment in favor of defendant PNC Bank on a borrower’s promissory estoppel and Illinois Consumer Fraud Act (ICFA) claims in connection with PNC’s HAMP procedures. In its August 25, 2015 decision the court found that PNC’s actions…
On August 24, 2015, the Third Circuit affirmed the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey’s denial of a motion to dismiss in FTC v. Wyndham Worldwide Corp. In Wyndham, the Federal Trade Commission brought suit against Wyndham in the wake of three cybersecurity attacks that allegedly…
On August 21, 2015, the Sixth Circuit issued its widely anticipated decision in Hill v. Homeward Residential, Inc., No. 14-4168 (6th Cir. August 21, 2015), which affirmed a jury verdict that found Homeward Residential, Inc. had plaintiff Hill’s prior express consent to call him using an auto-dialer. The case is significant because plaintiff Hill…
Joe Yenouskas, a partner in Goodwin Procter’s Consumer Financial Services Litigation Group, will speak on October 7, 2015 at DRI’s 2015 Annual Meeting in Washington, DC about MERS Litigation. His presentation will focus on the nationwide claims asserted by county recorders against Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS) alleging that the…
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York recently did a study which found that, while mortgage loan originations increased through the second quarter of 2015, the increase is only for borrowers with credit scores above 660). See Liberty Street Economics, “Just Released: Releveraging the Consumer Credit Panel with Two New Charts,” August…