On September 25, 2017, New York’s Department of Financial Services (DFS) announced that it had entered into a consent order with a payday loan servicer and debt collector over the servicing and collection practices on usurious payday loan debts, resulting in nearly $12 million in relief for affected consumers. Payday loans are illegal in New York, and…
On August 1, 2017, the Virginia Attorney General’s Office (AG) announced that it had entered into a consent order with a state pawnbroker, settling allegations that the company overcharged consumers and was “skirting laws.” According to the AG, the company was in the business of offering consumers small dollar loans in exchange for the…
On July 25, 2017, the Virginia Attorney General’s Office (Virginia AG) announced that it had reached a settlement with a small-dollar open-end credit lender. According to the Virginia AG, the lender offered open-end cash advances, both at a storefront and online, through short term loans with interest rates as high as…
On June 30, 2017, the Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Virginia (Virginia AG) announced that it had entered into a proposed consent order to resolve an action filed in Richmond City Circuit Court against a Virginia-based pawn broker that allegedly assessed excessive fees, made motor-vehicle-secured loans without a title loan license, and charged illegal interest…
On June 23, 2017, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it has filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina against a North Carolina debt collection company and its owner, alleging that the defendants took money from consumers for fake or “phantom” debts they did not owe. According…
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 20, 2017, the Ninth Circuit affirmed a trial court ruling that ordered three tribal lending entities to comply with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) civil investigative demands. The CFPB’s investigation concerns whether small-dollar online lenders or similar persons had engaged in illegal advertising, marketing, or collection practices in…
On January 3, 2017, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California certified for appellate review its August 31, 2016 Order finding that a California-based payday lending company used a “rent-a-tribe” scheme to avoid state usury laws, in violation of the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA). Enforcement Watch covered the August 31,…
On January 9, 2017, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas against one individual and affiliated companies, alleging that they sold portfolios of nonexistent payday loans to debt collectors. The complaint alleges that the companies fabricated lenders and loan…
On January 4, 2017, the Iowa Attorney General’s Office (“Iowa AG”) announced that it had entered into an agreement with a company accused of charging high rates of interest on cash advances from pension accounts. According to the Iowa AG, the company charged up to 200 percent interest for cash…
On December 16, 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it entered into a consent order relating to a Seattle-based payday lender and check-cashing company’s allegedly deceptive online advertisements and collection letters. The consent order alleges that the company violated sections 1031(a) and 1036(a)(1)(B) of the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 (CFPA), 12 U.S.C. §§ 5531(a), 5536(a)(1)(B),…
On November 22, 2016, the Massachusetts Division of Banks (“DOB) announced that it has returned approximately $2.3 Million to 1,673 Massachusetts residents, as part of a settlement with an online payday lender. The payday lender allegedly issued payday loans with interest rates between 89 and 135 percent, and annual percentage rates (APR) between…
On November 9, 2016, the New Mexico Attorney General (AG) announced that a New Mexico judge issued a final judgment against a payday lender and ordered the lender to pay $32 million in restitution. The court found the lender had “fashioned their loans and business practices so as to circumvent…
On November 3, the Minnesota Attorney General (AG) announced that it had settled a 2013 lawsuit it had filed against a California-based online personal loan lender. The AG alleged that the lender used a front company that falsely claimed to be affiliated with a Native American tribe and originated loans whose…
On November 3, 2016, the Georgia Attorney General’s Office (Georgia AG) announced that affiliated online payday lenders will suspend collections on approximately $6.5 million in loans following a Georgia Supreme Court ruling that state law applied to the online payday lenders. As a result of that ruling, the Georgia AG’s case currently…
On October 14, 2016, the Indiana Attorney General’s Office (Indiana AG) announced that it had reached a settlement with an online payday lender. The Indiana AG alleged that the lender employed a “rent-a-tribe” scheme in which it allegedly associated itself with a Native American tribe in order to bypass the Indian Deceptive…
On October 4, 2016, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada issued an order requiring that a racecar driver and several corporate defendants pay $1.3 billion in relation to a Kansas City-based payday lending scheme. The order also bans the individual…
On September 27, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had entered into a consent order with an online lender, after a joint investigation with the California Department of Business Oversight (DBO), over allegations that the lender deceptively marketed its loan products and hid the true cost of credit…
On August 31, 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) obtained summary judgment against a California-based online payday lender, its individual owner, its subsidiary, and a servicer of its loans, which allegedly used a “rent-a-tribe” scheme to avoid state usury and licensing laws in violation of the Consumer Financial Protection Act. According to the…
On August 19, the Attorney General’s Office for the State of Minnesota (Minnesota AG) announced that it had settled a lawsuit against a California-based online lender relating to an alleged “rent-a-tribe” scheme. The settlement bars the lender from doing business in Minnesota unless and until it complies with the state’s usury, lending,…