Like most industries today, Consumer Finance Services businesses continue to be significantly impacted by COVID-19. To help you keep abreast of relevant activities, below find a breakdown of some of the biggest legislative and regulatory events at the federal and state levels to impact the Consumer Finance Services industry this past week:

Federal Activities

State Activities

On May 4, following in the footsteps of President Biden’s recent executive order (Federal EO), California Governor Gavin Newsom issued his own blockchain-related executive order (CA EO), making California the first among the states to endorse a proactive, harmonized approach to regulate blockchain technology. The CA EO assesses how existing state and public institutions may

On May 25, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) published a blog post, examining what it describes as the “practice of suppressing payment data.”

Per the blog post, the CFPB alleges that its research conducted in 2020 “uncovered that only about half of the largest credit card companies contribute data to credit

On May 26, California Supreme Court ruled that the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) “Holder Rule” does not limit the award of attorneys’ fees where a consumer seeks fees from a holder under a state prevailing party statute.

The Holder Rule and Previous California Precedent

The FTC’s Holder Rule permits consumers to bring any legal claims

On May 26, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) announced that federal anti-discrimination law requires companies to explain to applicants the specific reasons for denying an application for credit or taking other adverse actions, even if the creditor is relying on credit models using complex algorithms.

In a corresponding Consumer Financial Protection Circular

To resolve a discovery dispute in a Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) case, a judge in the Western District of Kentucky recently compelled the production of the plaintiff’s settlement agreements with several former co-defendants. Under the “one-satisfaction rule,” the agreements reduced the remaining defendant’s potential liability, making them relevant to the case and thus discoverable.

On April 28, the Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement (the J5), a global joint operational taxation group consisting of Australia, Canada, Netherlands, United Kingdom, and the United States, issued an intelligence bulletin (Bulletin), enumerating its perceived dangers of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

NFTs, ERC-20, and Fungibility

Cryptocurrencies and NFTs are similar in the sense that

On May 23, California’s Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI or Department) sent an email notifying license applicants and prospective license applicants that the issuance of licenses under the Debt Collection Licensing Act is unavoidably delayed at this time.

The original deadline for applicants was December 31, 2021; however, that deadline was extended to

On May 20, California’s Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI or Department) announced that it had filed a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking with the Office of Administrative Law, inviting public comments on the proposed rulemaking. The purpose of the proposed regulations is to implement, interpret, clarify, and make specific, certain sections of the California