Photo of Ethan G. Ostroff

Ethan’s practice focuses on financial services litigation and compliance counseling, as well as digital assets and blockchain technology. With a long track record of successful litigation results across the U.S., both bank and non-bank clients rely on him for comprehensive advice throughout their business cycle.

A district court in the Western District of Washington held that the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) does not require a consumer reporting agency (CRA), as part of its investigative duties, to issue an opinion on the legal validity of a consumer’s debt. Through its holding, the court denied the plaintiff’s motion for reconsideration and

On April 19, the Superior Court of Connecticut issued an opinion affirming the Connecticut Department of Banking’s (DOB) decision to issue a $750,000 fine against a mortgage lender for allowing its unlicensed employees to engage in activities that required a license.

In 1st Alliance Lending, LLC (1st Alliance) v Department of Banking, 1st Alliance

As discussed here, on April 7, the Washington State legislature passed HB 1051, also known as the Robocall Scam Protection Act, expanding the scope of existing provisions of Washington’s consumer protection laws regulating robocalls and telephone solicitations to prohibit abusive telephone communication practices. On April 20, Governor Inslee signed the bill into law. It

On April 17, the Superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), Adrienne A. Harris, announced that the NYDFS adopted a final regulation establishing how companies with NYDFS-issued BitLicenses will be assessed for costs of their supervision examination.

During the public comment period for the proposed regulation, the NYDFS received four comments, but

In a significant boost to the financial services industry, Utah has taken major steps to streamline its debt collection bureaucracy — including the removal of criminal penalties for failure to comply with technical requirements.

Utah House Bill 20, titled “Collection Agency Amendments,” was signed into law last month and goes into effect May 3