On November 8, 2023, the Minnesota Attorney General (Minnesota AG) announced that the state had reached a settlement with a California-based student-loan debt-relief provider over miscellaneous state law allegations. Specifically, the Minnesota AG alleged that the company did not register as a debt settlement services provider with the Minnesota Department of Commerce as required by Minn. Stat. § 332B.03. The…
In October 2023, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) proposed a new rule intended to encourage “open banking”. “Open banking” is a practice of sharing, with consent, consumers’ banking and financial data (account balances, transaction history, payment due dates, routing numbers, and the like) with third-party vendors who in turn…
On November 8, 2023, the CFPB and a national bank entered into a consent order to resolve allegations that the bank engaged in intentional discrimination against Armenian Americans who had applied for credit cards with said bank. Specifically, the CFPB alleges that between 2016 and 2021, the bank singled out…
On November 2, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had reached a settlement with a New York based personal finance application over claims that the app violated the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTCA), 15 U.S.C. §§ 45(a), 53(b), 57b, and Section 5 of the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act…
As previously reported, on September 8, 2023, the United States District Court of the Eastern District of Texas granted plaintiff U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s (the “Chamber”) motion for summary judgment, which invalidated the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau’s (“CFPB”) Exam Manual changes from March 2022 that stated that discriminatory conduct may…
On October 30, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) granted a permanent injunction containing a lifetime ban for the owner of a small-business lending company for unfair business practices and aggressive debt collection methods. On September 27, 2023, Judge Jed. S. Rakoff of SDNY granted summary…
On October 24, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had filed a complaint against a Wisconsin-based auto dealership alleging “unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce” in violation of FTC Act,15 U.S.C. § 45(a), and violations of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and Regulation B, which prohibit…
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on October 3, 2023 in Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Community Financial Services Association of America, Ltd. The issue before the Court is whether the CFPB’s funding mechanism violaties the U.S. Constitution’s Appropriations Clause (U.S. Const. art. I, § 9, cl. 7). Solicitor General,…
On October 12, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that they filed a joint complaint and obtained a $15 million settlement against a parent credit reporting agency and one of its subsidiaries for alleged violations of the Fair Credit Report Act (FCRA) with respect to tenant…
On October 10, 2023, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it filed a complaint against a residential mortgage loan originator and servicer alleging that the company violated the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA), its implementing Regulation C, the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA), and a recent 2019 consent order. The company allegedly reported HMDA…
On October 18, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced that that they had filed a complaint and entered into a stipulated order with a for-profit college and its parent company. Under the consent order, the college will cancel $3.4 million in student debt, resolving allegations that it made false claims about post-graduation job placements and…
On October 17, 2023, the Washington State Attorney General (AG) announced that over the course of 2023, they had recovered approximately $360,000 in restitution from three out-of-state debt adjusters for alleged predatory student debt adjustments in violation of the Debt Adjustment Act. The Debt Adjustment Act limits the amount of fees a debt adjuster…
On October 17, 2023, the California Attorney General announced that 48 states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico had reached a $10 million settlement with a payment processing company related to allegations of attempted unauthorized withdrawals related to a testing error on the part of the processing company. According to the press release,…
On October 12, 2023, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a consent order and a stipulation against a parent credit reporting agency and two of its subsidiaries for for alleged violations of the Fair Credit Report Act (FCRA) and the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA). The CFPB alleged that as early as…
On October 11, 2023, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced a settlement with a California student loan debt relief company for $17,000. This settlement marks the 14th time AG Ellison has pursued action against student loan debt relief companies since 2016. The settlement resolves allegations that the company illegally collected fees from customers and…
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is moving forward with a rulemaking proposal to change the process of reporting medical debt on consumer credit reports. Specifically, the rulemaking proposal the Bureau is considering had two main parts. First, it prohibits credit reporting companies from including medical debts and collection information on…
On September 8, 2023, the United States District Court of the Eastern District of Texas granted plaintiff U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s (the “Chamber”) motion for summary judgment invalidating the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau’s (“CFPB”) Exam Manual changes from March 2022 that stated that discriminatory conduct may be a UDAAP violation….
On September 7, 2023, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published its analysis of how smartphone companies are affecting consumers’ use of so-called “tap-to-pay” technology – the wireless transfer of data over very short distances, used in financial transactions conducted at the point of sale. Concluding that “tech companies are…
On March 30, 2023, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued the small business lending rule (Final Rule) which implements the small business lending data collection requirements set for in Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act (Section 1071). Section 1071 amended the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) to require financial…
On August 28, the CFPB announced it reached a proposed settlement agreement with a credit repair conglomerate for $2.7 billion. The parties await approval of the proposed settlement by the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah. In its amended complaint filed last August, the CFPB alleged that the defendant companies collected advance…