On January 30, 2020, the CFPB filed a complaint against a national bank in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island. The complaint alleges that the bank violated the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), 15 U.S.C. § 1601 et seq., TILA’s implementing Regulation Z, 12 C.F.R. pt. 1026, and the Consumer…
On January 27, 2020, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein (North Carolina AG) reached a settlement with an out-of-state payday lender for $825,000. The Attorney General obtained a consent temporary restraining order against the lender in May 2019 based on allegations that the lender was not licensed to operate in North Carolina, yet…
At the start of the new year, both California’s Governor Newson and New York’s Governor Cuomo proposed expansions to their respective state’s regulatory oversight of consumer financial services. Of particular note, Governor Newson’s 2020-21 Budget Summary (California’s Proposal) explained that the reason behind California’s proposed regulatory expansion is the belief…
On January 21, 2020, the Massachusetts attorney general’s office (Massachusetts AG) announced that it has secured $1.25 million from one of the country’s largest online lending companies to resolve allegations that the company charged excessive interest rates to Massachusetts borrowers in violation of M.G.L. ch. 93A and Massachusetts’ Small Loan Statute, M.G.L. c. 140 s. 96, which prohibits any personal…
On January 17, 2020, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) settled with several operators of a credit repair scheme for alleged violations of sections 13(b) and 19 of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 53(b) and 57b, Section 410(b) of the Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA), 15 U.S.C. § 1679h(b), Section 6(b) of the…
On January 16, 2020, the California Department of Business Oversight (DBO) announced it had reached a settlement with a point-of-sale lender to stop making illegal loans and refund $282,000 in fees it collected from almost 17,000 California consumers. In September 2019, the lender applied to the California DBO for a lender’s license. Upon review of the lender’s product and information, the California…
On January 10, 2020, the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) announced that, in concert with the New York Attorney General (New York AG), it had entered into a consent order and settlement with an unlicensed mortgage-lending business to resolve allegations that the business illegally made predatory, subprime loans in…
On January 9, 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had filed a complaint against a constellation of companies for allegedly requesting credit reports without a permissible purpose in order to deceptively market sham student-loan debt relief services to consumers, in violation of the Consumer Financial Protection Act…
On December 10, 2019, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) jointly hosted a workshop on accuracy in consumer reporting. The workshop was divided into four panels and featured a variety of speakers ranging from consumer advocates to industry representatives. Each panel sought to address the…
On December 11, 2019, PayPal, Inc. (PayPal) filed suit against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in the District of Columbia, challenging the CFPB’s Prepaid Accounts Under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (Regulation E) and the Truth in Lending Act (Regulation Z) Rule’s application to digital wallets. PayPal, Inc. v….