On July 11, the Financial Services Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives held a hearing entitled “Who’s Keeping Score? Holding Credit Bureaus Accountable and Repairing a Broken System.” The hearing involved a series of bills that would potentially reform the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The proposed bills, which were advanced on a party-line vote
On July 18, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released a report analyzing market data from 2004 through 2018 on third-party debt collections tradelines reflected on credit reports compiled by the nationwide consumer reporting agencies. The CFPB segmented the report into two parts: buyers (entities that purchase debts and then collect on them) and non-buyers (entities
The Eastern District of New York recently granted a debt collector’s motion for summary judgment in a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act case because the collection letter clearly identified the creditor to whom the debt was owed and would not mislead even the least sophisticated consumer. In doing so, the Court critiqued the “lawyer’s case”
In a recent statement from the Federal Communications Commission, Chairman Ajit Pai proposed the adoption of new rules aimed at extending the anti-spoofing prohibitions in last year’s Ray Baum’s Act to international callers and texters. The provisions in last year’s Ray Baum’s Act extended the scope of the Truth in Caller ID Act, which the
On June 24, the Consumer Education Foundation (“CEF”), a California-based nonprofit consumer organization, filed a petition with the Federal Trade Commission requesting that it investigate the use of so-called “Secret Surveillance Scores” in the consumer market. The complaint alleges that consumer data points are covertly tracked and amassed by private firms to create a single
On June 25, a district court judge in the Eastern District of Louisiana granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim. The Court held that requiring the plaintiff, Iris Calogero, to repay funds arising from the overpayment of grant monies did not constitute a debt under the Fair
An amendment to the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act takes effect this week that will regulate and impose restrictions on “litigation financiers.” The new amendment, found in Sections 46A-6N-1 through 8 (“Article 6N”), adds an article to the current Act, which is one of the primary statutes that governs consumer transactions in West
The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently reiterated that the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act was not intended to penalize a company that made an honest mistake that resulted in no harm to the borrower.
In Casillas v. Madison Avenue Associates, Inc., No. 17-3162, Slip Op. (7th Cir. June 4,
The Eleventh Circuit’s most recent decision regarding Regulation X, 12 C.F.R. § 1024.1, et seq., of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (“RESPA”), 12 U.S.C. § 2601, et seq., will come as a relief to mortgage lenders and borrowers alike—although not to the individual plaintiff in Landau v. RoundPoint Mortgage Servicing Corp.
On June 14, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced a settlement that effectively forgives $168 million in private student loans owed by former students of ITT Technical Institute, the for-profit college that filed for bankruptcy in 2016 in the face of regulatory scrutiny concerning its recruitment and student loan practices. The settlement is with Student