On June 21, 2018, a judge in the Southern District of New York ruled that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB’s) single director structure is unconstitutional. See CFPB v. RD Legal Funding LLC (2018 WL 3094916 (S.D.N.Y. June 21, 2018)). In doing so, the court adopted two dissenting opinions from…
One month after the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives voted to repeal of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB’s) indirect auto lending guidance under a Congressional Review Act challenge, President Trump signed the resolution to make the repeal official on May 21, 2018. The guidance, which Congress and the President have…
At the end of May 2018, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released an analysis of consumer debt collection complaints highlighting several issues that often arise in those complaints. In light of Acting Director Mulvaney’s comment in his January 2018 staff memo that debt collection complaints made up the majority…
On March 16, 2018, the D.C. Circuit issued a long-awaited ruling in ACA International v. FCC, which struck down the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) expansive interpretation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act’s (TCPA’s) “automatic telephone dialing system” (ATDS) definition. As LenderLaw Watch analyzed more fully here, the D.C. Circuit focused…
On May 15, 2018, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued an important decision regarding the statute of limitations under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), 15 U.S.C. § 1692, et seq. In Rotkiske v. Klemm, No. 16-1668 (3d Cir. May 15, 2018), on appeal…
On May 8, 2018, the Sixth Circuit affirmed dismissal of a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) claim against Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer. As the Sixth Circuit noted at the start of its opinion in Health One Medical Center, Eastpointe P.L.L.C. v. Mohawk, Inc. et al., “[s]ome questions seem to arise…
On April 17, 2018, House members Sean Duffy (R-WI) and Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) co-sponsored bi-partisan legislation aimed at providing more certainty to companies subject to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) regulation. The bill, H.R. 5534, titled the “Give Useful Information to Define Effective Compliance Act” or “GUIDE Compliance Act,”…
On April 17, 2018, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced that the Senate would seek to repeal the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB’s) indirect auto lending guidance. The Senate passed a joint resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act (CRA) on the following day, thereby sending the resolution…
On April 2, 2018, the Superior Court of Suffolk County, Massachusetts denied Equifax, Inc.’s motion to dismiss the Commonwealth’s case against it related to the company’s widely publicized 2017 data breach. Although the ruling does not determine who will ultimately prevail in the action, it outlines several key considerations for…
On March 15, 2018, in Chamber of Com. of the U.S. v. U.S. Dep’t. of Labor (No. 17-10238, 5th Cir. Mar. 15, 2018), the Fifth Circuit entered an order enjoining enforcement of the Department of Labor’s (DOL) fiduciary rule (Fiduciary Rule), finding that the DOL exceeded its statutory authority in…
On March 15, 2018, the U.S. Senate passed the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act (S-2155)–a bipartisan bill that LenderLaw Watch reported on as a piece of legislation to watch back in December. In general, the bill seeks to reduce compliance obligations for smaller financial institutions while maintaining…
On February 26, 2018, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in New Prime, Inc. v. Oliviera, 17-340, a First Circuit case arising from the District of Massachusetts. The case is posed to resolve a split among the circuit courts as to who – the court or the arbitrator – decides whether…
On March 16, 2018, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued its long-awaited decision in ACA International v. FCC, invalidating several key pieces of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) 2015 Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) interpretive order, but upholding other aspects of that order. 885 F.3d 687 (D.C….
On February 16, 2018, the 6th Circuit, in Hagy v. Demers & Adams (882 F.3d 616 (6th Cir. Feb. 16, 2018)), found that a former borrower did not have standing to assert a claim under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) absent a showing of concrete harm. The case is one of…
On March 1, 2018, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued its sixth request for information (RFI) since Mick Mulvaney, acting head of the CFPB, began his tenure. This request seeks “comments and information from interested parties on the usefulness of complaint reporting and analysis, as well as specific suggestions or…
On February 27, 2018, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 4296, which would reduce the operational capital requirements imposed on financial institutions. The bill passed with a 245-169 vote. As could be expected from such deregulatory legislation, only 19 Democrats voted in favor of the bill and only 3…
On February 13, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois decertified a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) text-message class in light of new evidence of consent obtained during the class-member identification process. Johnson v. Yahoo! Inc., No. 1:14-cv-02028 (N.D. Ill. Feb. 13, 2018), is instructive for TCPA defendants…
Goodwin announces the release of its third annual Consumer Finance Year in Review, an in-depth report that analyzes the principal litigation, enforcement actions and regulations that have impacted the consumer finance industry over the prior year. This report synthesizes Goodwin’s consumer finance coverage from 2017 and offers predictions and insights…
On January 25, 2018, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued the final prepaid accounts rule (which we wrote about here and here) under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (Regulation E) and the Truth in Lending Act (Regulation Z). The final rule, which will now become effective on April 1,…
The Trump Administration-appointed Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”), Mick Mulvaney, recently stated in a memo to his staff that under his leadership, the CFPB would significantly change in its approach to regulation and enforcement. The most concrete example of this thus far is his approach to the payday lending…