Please join Troutman Pepper attorneys Chris Willis, Keith Barnett, Carlin McCrory, and Josh McBeain in announcing the Payment Pros Podcast — our new podcast providing insights for those in the payments law industry. This podcast features analysis and commentary from our attorneys and business leaders, regulatory experts, and stakeholders on the most challenging legal and regulatory concerns confronted by companies and others in the payments industry. From the BSA to EFTs, fintech to regtech, licensure to lending, Nacha to the CFPB, and payment processing to debt collecting, we have you covered!

In Soaring Pine Capital Real Estate & Debt Fund II, LLC v. Park Street Group Realty Services, LLC, the Michigan Supreme Court considered whether a court may enforce a usury savings clause in a mortgage agreement. A usury savings clause is a contractual term requiring a borrower to pay the maximum legal interest rate if the court determines that the other contractual terms impose an illegal interest rate.

On June 29, 2023, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking clarifying how consumers may revoke consent to receive calls or texts under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). The FCC is accepting comments on the proposed rule until July 31, 2023.

In this episode of Payments Pros, our hosts Keith Barnett, Carlin McCrory, and Josh McBeain join their colleague Chris Willis to discuss the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) larger participant rule for consumer payments mentioned in its 2023 semiannual rulemaking agenda. During this podcast, they examine a myriad of topics concerning this rule, including the following:

In Frazier v. Dovenmuehle Mortgage, Inc., the Seventh Circuit recently issued an opinion affirming summary judgement in favor of the defendant data furnisher in a suit brought by a consumer under § 1681s-2(b) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requiring data furnishers upon notice of a dispute to “investigate the disputed data” and “correct or verify the information by returning the ACDV form to the credit reporting agency [CRA] with any amended or verified data inserted next to the old data.” The appellate court rejected the consumer’s argument that the information provided by the furnisher on an ACDV response to a CRA was materially misleading, even though the CRA’s inaccurate interpretation of the ACDV response led the CRA to report that the consumer was currently delinquent on a settled debt.

The drumbeat to increase regulation of tenant screening continues, this time in Michigan.

On June 15, Michigan state Representative Brenda Carter (D-29) introduced House Bill 4818, which proposes to amend landlord-tenant act 1972 PA 348. Specifically, the amendment proposes to exclude the credit score of a prospective Michigan tenant from being a deciding factor in determining the prospective tenant’s eligibility for a lease. Under the proposed amendment “credit score” is defined as, “the numerical score ranging from 300 to 850 assigned by a consumer reporting agency to measure credit risk.”

On June 28, a magistrate judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio issued a report recommending that the defendant’s motion to dismiss be denied because the plaintiff had standing under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) even though the calls in question were not intended for the plaintiff.

The American Association of Bank Directors (AABD) recently published the second edition of its Practical Handbook on Fair Lending for Bank Directors and Executive Officers (the Handbook), updating the first edition of the Handbook issued in 2016. David Baris, President of AABD, and Troutman Pepper partner Lori Sommerfield (two of the original authors) are again co-authors of the Handbook, together with Troutman Pepper partner Chris Willis and associate Sarah Pruett.

As shown by a new report, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) is focusing its fair lending work on mortgage origination and pricing, small business lending, redlining, and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning models.

On June 29, the CFPB released its annual Fair Lending Report (Report) to Congress describing its fair lending enforcement and supervisory activities, guidance, and rulemaking for calendar year 2022. The Report satisfies the CFPB’s statutory responsibility to report annually to Congress on public enforcement actions taken pursuant to the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA).