On August 31, 2021, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office (Massachusetts AG) announced that it reached a settlement with a Massachusetts-based debt settlement company to resolve allegations that the company violated the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act. The settlement resolves a lawsuit originally filed by the Massachusetts AG in 2018. In the complaint, the Massachusetts AG alleged that the…
On August 30, 2021, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that, together with Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), it reached a settlement with a bank, resolving allegations that the bank engaged in lender discrimination in the Houston, Texas area. In 2017, the OCC initiated a fair lending examination…
On August 17, 2021, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) filed a proposed settlement order that would resolve allegations that a debt collection company had violated the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA), the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and its implementing regulation, Regulation V, and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). The CFPB’s complaint, filed in…
On July 30, 2021, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that two final rules issued under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) will take effect as originally planned, on November 30, 2021, thereby scrapping a proposed delay that would have extended the effective dates to January 29, 2022….
On August 12, 2021, the Georgia Attorney General’s Office (AG) announced it had entered into a settlement with a debt collector, resolving allegations that the company violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and the Georgia Fair Business Practices Act (GFBPA). After conducting an investigation, the Georgia AG alleged that the company engaged in…
On August 12, 2021, the Massachusetts Attorney General (AG) announced a settlement with an online loan servicer, resolving allegations that the company engaged in abusive debt collection practices in violation of the AG’s debt collection regulations. After the AG’s Office conducted an investigation into the company, the Massachusetts AG alleged that the company, which…
On June 25, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court decided TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez, revisiting some of the Article III standing principles it had set forth in Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, 578 U.S. 330 (2016), and addressing their application to Rule 23 class actions. Keith Levenberg discusses this decision and its…
On August 9, 2021, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) announced that it had entered into a settlement agreement with a Tustin-based student loan debt relief company, resolving allegations that the company violated the California Consumer Financial Protection Law (CCFPL) when it collected illegal advance fees under the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR). This settlement comes as the…
The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) released an interagency statement on July 20, 2021 that all three agencies will act together to revise their regulations implementing the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). The OCC also…