January 2023

Federal courts across the country continue to divest themselves of Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) cases following the Supreme Court’s salient Article III standing decision in TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez. The Southern District of Illinois is no exception, with a court in that district recently dismissing an FDCPA action for lack of standing

As discussed here, on October 27, 2022, the CFPB released an Outline of Proposals and Alternatives Under Consideration for public comments on the CFPB’s Section 1033 rulemaking. The window for providing written feedback closed on January 25, 2023. Below we have highlighted some of the submissions by industry and consumer groups.

The proposed rules

The Federal Deposit Insurance Act (FDIA) generally prohibits insured state banks, but not uninsured state member banks, from acting as principal in activities that are not permissible for national banks. Relying on its authority under the FDIA to limit the activities of state member banks, on January 27, 2023, the Federal Reserve Board (Fed) issued

On July 19, 2022, the Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel ruled that a creditor’s proof of claim — while meeting the standard of the Bankruptcy Code — was insufficient to enforce the debt under state law and was therefore subject to disallowance.

In In re Myers, included on the debtors’ chapter 13 scheduled debts

As discussed here, on December 7, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) made a preliminary conclusion that a New York commercial financing law was not preempted by the Truth in Lending Act (TILA). The Bureau indicated it was also considering whether to make a preemption determination regarding similar state laws in California, Utah, and Virginia. On January 20, 2023, California Attorney General Rob Bonta submitted a letter to the CFPB agreeing with its preliminary determination that California’s Commercial Financing Disclosures Law (CFDL) is not preempted by TILA because the CFDL only applies to commercial financing and not to consumer credit transactions within the scope of TILA. Attorney General Bonta further urged the CFPB to “revisit the Federal Reserve Board’s (Board) vague and overbroad articulation of the TILA preemption standard. The CFPB should articulate a narrower standard that emphasizes that preemption should be limited to situations where it is impossible to comply with both TILA and the state law or where the state law stands as an obstacle to the full purposes TILA, which is to provide consumers with full and meaningful disclosure of credit terms in consumer credit transactions.”

On January 20, Representative Steve Cohen (D-Tenn) introduced the Keeping Evictions Off Credit Reports Act, H.R. 408, in the U.S. House of Representatives seeking to prohibit evictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic from appearing on consumer reports. This is the third time that Representative Cohen has proposed this legislation. Representatives Bennie Thompson (D-MS), Yvette

Bankers are opposing any effort by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) to reduce or eliminate the late fee safe harbor, citing a potentially significant adverse impact on community banks and credit unions. In a letter dated January 20, the American Bankers Association (ABA), Credit Union National Association (CUNA), Independent Community Bankers of

On January 24, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced it is seeking public comment on how the consumer credit market is functioning as part of its biennial review required by the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 (CARD Act). The CFPB will be accepting comments until April 24.

The CARD Act

On December 28, 2022, the New York Department of Financial Services released its debt collection rule amendments to 23 NYCRR 1, the regulation titled “Debt Collection by Third-Party Debt Collectors and Debt Buyers.” The initial proposed amendments were opened to public comment in late 2021. The rule amendments will take effect 180 days after the