On February 23, 2017, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it entered into a settlement with the final individual defendant in an alleged mortgage relief scheme worth over $1.7 million. As a result of a joint federal-state enforcement sweep known as “Operation Mis-Modification,” the FTC filed a complaint in…
On February 16, 2017, the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit granted Respondent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) petition for rehearing en banc of PHH Corp. v. CFPB, No. 15-1177 (D.C. Cir.). In doing so, the court vacated its October 11, 2016, order, which had held, inter alia, that the CFPB’s single-director structure…
On February 17, 2017, the California Department of Business Oversight (California DBO) announced that it had entered in to a $225 million consent order with a national mortgage servicer following an investigation by a third-party auditor into loans serviced by the company in California between January 1, 2012 and June 30, 2015. The servicer had agreed to the audit…
Earlier this month, the Northern District of Illinois struck the class allegations in Cholly v. Uptain Group, Inc., a single-count TCPA case filed against a medical services provider and a debt collector based on allegedly autodialed calls the plaintiff received. The defendants had sought to dismiss the complaint on several…
On February 14, 2017, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had entered into a stipulated order with a student loan debt collector, resolving allegations that the debt collector violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC Act) in its servicing of over two million accounts in…
On February 14, 2017, the Florida Attorney General’s Office (Florida AG) announced that it had entered into three consent judgments and one settlement with four affiliated loan service companies and their operators, resolving complaints filed against the companies by the Florida AG in state court in 2015. According to the Florida AG, the…
On January 31, 2017, Mitzie Perez—a former undocumented immigrant who is authorized to work in the United States under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (“DACA”) policy—filed a class action in the Northern District of California, Perez et al. v. Wells Fargo & Co. et al., No. 17-454 (N.D. Cal….
On February 9, the Attorney General’s Office for the State of Georgia (Georgia AG) announced that it reached a settlement and entered into a consent order with a California-based online lender relating to an alleged “rent-a-tribe” scheme. The consent order, filed in Georgia state court, bars the lender from doing…
On January 31, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it ordered a California-based mortgage lender to pay $3.5 million in civil penalties for an illegal mortgage kickback scheme. According to the CFPB, the lender entered into several different referral programs with multiple third parties, each of which the CFPB contends violated…
On February 7, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the Inspector General for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation announced a settlement agreement and consent order with a residential mortgage lender and…
On February 7, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the New York Attorney General (NY AG) jointly announced they filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against a settlement advance company and its founder. The Complaint alleges that the company violated section 1054 of…
On Monday, January 30, 2017, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held in Van Patten v. Vertical Fitness Group, LLC, No. 14-55980, that the plaintiff’s allegation that he received unsolicited text messages in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) satisfied the “concrete injury” standing requirement as articulated…
On February 2, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Virginia (Virginia AG) announced the filing of a complaint and a stipulated consent order in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia against a Virginia-based pawn broker for allegedly deceiving consumers…
A recent decision by the Ninth Circuit has created a circuit split regarding the interpretation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). In Vien-Phung Ho v. ReconTrust Co. et al., case no. 10-56884, the court held that the trustee of a California deed of trust is not a “debt collector” under the…
On February 1, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced a settlement with a credit card service provider and a credit card provider over a disruption of service for prepaid credit card consumers. According to the CFPB, the credit card provider marketed its prepaid credit card to consumers nationally as a way to get…
On January 31, 2017, the Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Virginia (VA AG) announced that it entered into a settlement with a small dollar loan lender. The lender allegedly engaged into a “rent-a-tribe” scheme through a South Dakota company that held itself out as a Native American business entity. The company purportedly used this “facade” to deceive consumers…
Goodwin, a leading Global 50 law firm, announced today the release of the 2016 Consumer Finance Year in Review, a detailed report that highlights the major litigation, enforcement and regulations that impacted the consumer finance industry in 2016. The second annual report, produced by the firm’s Financial Industry and Consumer…
Goodwin, a leading Global 50 law firm, announced today the release of the 2016 Consumer Finance Year in Review, a detailed report that highlights the major litigation, enforcement and regulations that impacted the consumer finance industry in 2016. The second annual report, produced by the firm’s Financial Industry and Consumer…
On January 17, 2017, Maria Vullo, the Superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services (NY DFS) sent a letter to the Office of the Comptroller Currency (OCC), opposing the OCC’s proposed special purpose charter for Fintech companies. The NY DFS adds to the existing resistance by state…
Goodwin released its Consumer Finance 2016 Year In Review. In the Year In Review, Goodwin synthesizes prior coverage from the LenderLaw Watch and Consumer Finance Watch blogs, covering the most significant developments from 2016 and offering some predictions on what the industry might expect in 2017 in the mortgage, credit card, student…