On April 8, Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger signed SB 227, the Arbitration Fairness Act, into law. The Act not only regulates how high-volume arbitration providers select and oversee arbitrators, but also reshapes the rules for challenging an arbitration award after it has been issued. Designed to make consumer and employment arbitrations more transparent and balanced when administered by high‑volume arbitration service providers, SB 227 will take effect on July 1, 2026, and will apply to all arbitration agreements entered into on or after that date.

In Holden v. Holiday Inn Club Vacations Inc., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit recently upheld a consolidated district court ruling granting summary judgment for the defendant furnisher in two Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) actions centering on whether the consumers’ disputes with the furnisher were actionable. While the Eleventh Circuit declined to impose a bright-line rule that only FCRA claims based on factual disputes are actionable, it affirmed the district courts’ summary judgment ruling, finding that for consumer disputes to be actionable against furnishers, the alleged inaccuracy must be “objectively and readily verifiable.”

We are pleased to share our annual review of regulatory and legal developments in the consumer financial services industry. With active federal and state legislatures, consumer financial services providers faced a challenging 2023. Courts across the country issued rulings that will have immediate and lasting impacts on the industry. Our team of more than 140 professionals has prepared this concise, yet thorough analysis of the most important issues and trends throughout our industry. We not only examined what happened in 2023, but also what to expect — and how to prepare — for the months ahead.

A recent opinion issued by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted an employer’s motion for summary judgment, rejecting a series of technical arguments advanced by the plaintiff that the employer’s background check authorization forms violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).

In Keefer v. Ryder Integrated Logistics, Inc. (Ryder Integrated),

More than two years ago, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Johnson v. NPAS Solutions, LLC, 975 F.3d 1244 (11th Cir. 2020) that incentive payments for lead plaintiffs in class-action lawsuits are improper. After being denied rehearing en banc, the plaintiff has filed a petition for writ of certiorari for the

On June 23, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a final rule, prohibiting consumer reporting agencies (CRAs) from reporting adverse information resulting from human trafficking on survivors’ credit reports. This rule took effect on July 25.

The CFPB’s final rule amends Regulation VII, the Fair Credit Reporting Act’s (FCRA) implementing regulation, to comply