On December 4, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau asked a federal district court to approve a settlement with a New Jersey debt settlement firm that would require the firm to pay a fine of $69,075 for allegedly charging consumers illegal upfront fees for debt-settlement services they never received.
The proposed consent order was filed in
As we have been reporting since 2013, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s attacks on what it considers discriminatory and subjective dealer pricing of finance rates should be seen as nothing less than an outright attempt to reshape the auto finance industry. These regulatory actions have continued in earnest through the present, as we’ve discussed
On Wednesday, December 3, 2014, New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo, announced new regulations aimed at “protect[ing] consumers against abusive and deceptive debt collection practices.” The press release issued by Governor Cuomo can be found here.
These regulations come from the New York Department of Financial Services and were first proposed in July 2013 and
The lending arm of Honda Motor Co., America Honda Finance Corp., has just revealed in a recent public filing that the U.S. Department of Justice and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have authorized an enforcement action against the company for violations of law arising out of its indirect lending practices. Honda stated that the CFPB
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has announced that it will hold a field hearing on medical debt collection in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on December 11 at 11:00 a.m. CST.
According to the CFPB, the hearing will feature remarks from CFPB Director Richard Cordray, as well as testimony from consumer groups, industry representatives, and members of
On November 13, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered a California mortgage lender to pay $730,000 for allegedly paying its loan originators compensation based on loan terms. The CFPB has asked the United States District Court for the Central District of California to approve a consent order requiring the company to end its allegedly illegal
In March 2014, the Federal Trade Commission issued a bulletin entitled Background Checks: What Job Applicants and Employees Should Know, which set forth and summarized a number of the laws and regulations on the use of employment background checks, both prior to and subsequent to hiring.
In November, the FTC issued a second such
A group of 16 state attorneys general recently wrote Richard Cordray, head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a letter encouraging the CFPB to take immediate action to crack down on pre-dispute mandatory arbitration clauses in consumer agreements for financial products or services. Specifically, while acknowledging that additional actions may be necessary to “fully address
The American Financial Services Association (AFSA), a consumer credit industry trade association, released a study this month that took issue with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s method of measuring discrimination in the automotive lending business.
The study, which was carried out by Charles River Associates and based on over eight million vehicle finance contracts issued
The United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York this month brought criminal charges against Williams Scott & Associates LLC and seven of its employees for allegedly engaging in illegal practices to collect more than $4 million from 6,000 victims across the country.
The charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud followed a