On March 3, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) filed a complaint in the Northern District of Illinois against a third-party payment processor, BrightSpeed Solutions, Inc., and its founder and former CEO Kevin Howard. The CFPB’s complaint alleges that the defendants violated the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) and the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and
On March 18, Opportunity Financial, Inc. (OppFi) — a Chicago-based platform lender — announced that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is investigating its compliance with the Military Lending Act. The announcement — coupled with several others like it in recent months — confirms that the CFPB is closely monitoring fintechs.
OppFi is a consumer
On March 11, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it is rescinding a January 2020 policy statement that limited the “abusive acts and practices” standard created by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act. By rescinding the policy statement, the CFPB — under the direction of Acting Director Dave Uejio — signals a return to the
At the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System (NMLS) Annual Conference, state financial regulators released an updated cybersecurity examination tool for nonbank financial company supervision. The tool is designed for state regulators to use in examinations, but “companies are encouraged to use it to assess their cybersecurity health between examinations.”
State regulators are continuing to find new
A federal district court in Arizona held in FTC v. Tate’s Auto Center of Winslow Inc. that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) proved several automobile dealerships’ (collectively, “Tate’s Auto”) advertising failed to include legally required credit information in violation of the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) and the Consumer Leasing Act (CLA). The court declined
On January 21, the CFPB issued a Small Entity Compliance Guide summarizing the October 2020 Debt Collection Rule. The Debt Collection Rule amends Regulation F, 12 CFR Part 1006 and becomes effective on November 30, 2021. The Debt Collection Rule governs the activities of debt collectors under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA).
The
On December 4, 2020, the Eleventh Circuit issued a ruling in Lucoff v. Navient Solutions, LLC, et al., holding Lucoff’s oral revocation of consent to be contacted under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) followed by re-consenting to be contacted minutes later via an online form was valid consent under the TCPA.
Lucoff was
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held in Urbina v. National Business Factors Inc. that a debt collector cannot use a “bona fide error” defense to shield itself from liability under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”) by merely: (1) requiring its creditor clients to provide accurate account information, and (2) requesting verification
The Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) regarding the amendment of the exemptions under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) allowing some entities to make calls using automated telephone dialing systems or artificial or pre-recorded voices, which could possibly include debt collection calls. The comment period has since closed.
In
Recently, the District Court of Kansas analyzed the definition of an automatic telephone dialing system (“ATDS”) under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) in Hampton v. Barclays Bank Del. The Court concluded the TCPA only applies to equipment that randomly or sequentially generates telephone numbers to be called and does not apply to dialers