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…
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 12, 2017, the U.S. Department of the Treasury issued a 150-page report called for by President Trump’s Executive Order 13772 on Core Principles for Regulating the United States Financial System. The Report, entitled “A Financial System that Creates Economic Opportunities: Banks and Credit Unions,” is the first in a…
On June 7, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a Consent Order against mortgage servicer Fay Servicing, LLC (Fay), requiring Fay Servicing to pay $1.15 million to borrowers and to cease activities that the CFPB contended violated the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), its implementing regulation, Regulation X,…
On May 31, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued its Monthly Complaint Report, this month’s complaints by consumers aged 62 and older. The CFPB drew its analysis of more than 103,100 complaints from its Complaint Database, which can be found here. The complaint report is an illuminating view…
Even a year after it issued its opinion in Spokeo v. Robins, the Supreme Court’s decision on Article III standing continues to be hotly contested. On June 6, 2017, the District of New Jersey cited Spokeo in dismissing an amended Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) case. The decision…
On May 15, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Midland Funding, LLC, v. Johnson, No. 16–348, in favor of the debt collectors involved in the case. Specifically, Justice Breyer, writing for the Court, held that the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U. S. C. §1692 et seq., (FDCPA), which…
On May 10, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) began gathering information regarding small business financing needs in an effort to encourage small businesses—especially ones owned by minorities and women. The Bureau began this process by issuing a Request for Information (RFI) seeking information from the public on a variety…
On May 4, 2017, 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 legislation, co-sponsored by Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), seeks to overhaul the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, including restructuring the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). LenderLaw…
On May 15, 2017, petitioners in E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. v. Bobbi-Jo Smiley filed a reply brief with the U.S. Supreme Court defending their petition for certiorari and arguing that the Court should take up review of the Third Circuit’s revival of their employees’ claims for overtime…
On May 10, 2017, the Fourth Circuit affirmed the Middle District of North Carolina’s refusal to compel arbitration under the terms of a payday loan agreement. In Dillon v. BMO Harris Bank, N.A., BMO Harris attempted to compel arbitration pursuant to an agreement that would have required the arbitrator to…
On April 26, 2017, the CFPB issued a press release and its latest Supervisory Highlights, which spotlight the CFPB’s recent enforcement efforts in the areas of mortgage loan origination, mortgage loan servicing, and student loan servicing. The Supervisory Highlights reflect what the CFPB sees as common problems in each area,…
On April 12, 2017, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had secured a $2 million civil penalty against the president of a debt collection company for violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) in United States v. Commercial Recovery Systems, Inc.—one of over a hundred cases brought…
On April 5, 2017, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Richard Cordray testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee to present the CFPB’s semi-annual report, which is available here. The hearing was unsurprisingly divisive among members of Congress. Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) set the tone during his opening statement,…
On April 18, 2017, the United States Supreme Court, once again with nine justices sitting on the bench, heard oral arguments in Henson v. Santander Consumer USA, Inc., No. 16-349, concerning the scope of the Federal Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), codified at 15 U.S.C. § 1692 –1692p. As previously…
On April 13, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued proposed amendments to clarify certain requirements of the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). HMDA requires that financial institutions collect and report certain information regarding their mortgage lending activities. The information that financial institutions are required to collect and report includes…
On March 30, 2017, Judge Karas of the Southern District of New York dismissed multiple claims in a putative nationwide class action challenging default servicing activities. In the case, Tardibuono-Quigley v. HSBC Mortgage Corp., the plaintiff sued her lender (HSBC) and mortgage servicer (PHH) to contest charges she claimed were wrongly…
On March 31, 2017, the D.C. Circuit held in Bais Yaakov of Spring Valley v. FCC that, based on a plain reading of the TCPA, the FCC does not have the authority to mandate that senders of solicited fax advertisements include opt-out notices in their fax advertisements. The decision overturned…
On March 28, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released Volume 21 of its Monthly Complaint Report (the “Report”). The purpose of the Report is, in part, to educate consumers and financial institutions on major consumer issues—which it does by providing a high-level analysis of trends in consumer complaints, focusing on one or two…