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Keith J. Barnett

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Keith’s experience representing clients in the financial services industry as a litigation, compliance, regulatory, investigations (internal and regulatory), and enforcement attorney spans 20 years. Keith represents clients against government regulators (CFPB, FTC, SEC, CFTC), industry regulators (FINRA), and private litigants in federal courts, state courts, and before arbitration and administrative law panels in the financial services industry.

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On June 20, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB or Bureau) Office of Servicemember Affairs published its Annual Report analyzing complaints submitted by servicemembers, veterans, and their families in 2022. The report found that in 2022, servicemembers submitted over 66,400 complaints, representing a 55% increase from 2021, and a 62% increase from 2020. As in prior years, credit reporting remained the top issue for servicemembers, followed by debt collection and credit cards. Nonetheless, much of the report focused on the rising number of complaints from servicemembers related to payment app fraud and recommended steps the industry can take to address this issue.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) has signaled that it intends to propose a rule that would allow it to exercise supervisory authority over a greater number of nonbank financial companies that participate in the consumer payments market.

Under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank), the CFPB has authority…

Troutman Pepper’s Payments Pros podcast offers insights from Troutman Pepper Fintech and Payment practice group attorneys, industry business leaders, and regulatory experts on the most challenging legal and regulatory concerns confronted by participants in the payments industry — including everything from BSA to EFTs, fintech to regtech, licensure to lending, Nacha to the CFPB, and payment processing to debt collecting. Our attorneys, industry experts, and regulatory insiders walk you through the federal and state regulatory, legal, and business intricacies of the highly complex payments industry.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has reached a settlement with Nexway, Inc. (Nexway), its affiliated companies, and officers for allegedly facilitating tech support scams in violation of Section 5 of the FTC Act and the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR). Nexway allegedly used its merchant account to knowingly process consumer payments for third parties engaging in…

On April 5, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) released its Consumer Compliance Supervisory Highlights report, providing a high-level overview of consumer compliance issues identified by the agency during 2022 in its supervisory activities of state non–member banks and thrifts. The report did note that, “[o]verall, supervised institutions demonstrated effective management of their consumer compliance…

Chris Willis, co-chair of the CFS Regulatory Practice, Announces the Publication of the 2022 CFS Year in Review and a Look Ahead

Troutman Pepper’s Consumer Financial Services Practice Group consists of more than 120 attorneys and professionals nationwide, who bring extensive experience in litigation, regulatory enforcement, and compliance. Our trial attorneys have litigated thousands of individual and class-action lawsuits involving cutting-edge issues across the country, and our regulatory and compliance attorneys have handled numerous 50-state investigations and nationwide compliance analyses.

We are pleased to share our annual review of regulatory and legal developments in the consumer financial services industry. Our team has prepared this organized and thorough analysis of the most important issues and trends throughout our industry. We not only examined what happened in 2022, but also what to expect — and how to prepare — for the months ahead.

On February 22, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed an enforcement action against digital asset exchange, CoinEx, for failing to register as a securities and commodities broker-dealer and for falsely representing itself as a crypto exchange without appropriate registration in violation of New York law. In the petition, filed in the New York…

On March 8, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a special edition of its Supervisory Highlights report, focusing once again on fees assessed in relation to bank account deposits, auto loan servicing, mortgage loan servicing, payday lending, and student loan servicing. As the Supervisory Highlights reveal, the CFPB continues to scrutinize and challenge fees…

On March 1, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued an issue spotlight highlighting concerns about prepaid card programs for accessing public assistance benefits. In particular, the spotlight notes “specific recurring issues” related to cash assistance benefits including Social Security, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and unemployment benefits that are provided on prepaid cards.

In the fourth and final segment of our four-part Crypto Year in Review series, Ethan Ostroff, Keith Barnett, and Carlin McCrory discuss how the U.S. Treasury Department — including the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) bureaus — functions in the digital asset space. Our speakers examine how these financial services regulators seek to deter criminal activity, such as money laundering, financing of terrorist activities, AML/CFT violations, and sanctions compliance in the digital asset space in 2022, and what we can expect in 2023.