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In this episode of The Consumer Finance Podcast, Chris Willis is joined by Troutman Pepper Locke Partners Heryka Knoespel and Mary Zinsner for a year-in-review and look-ahead tour through the sometimes wild world of UCC and banking litigation. From check cashers and sovereign citizens to elder financial exploitation, the panel unpacks the major trends banks faced in 2025, including a steady stream of retail deposit disputes and increasingly inventive plaintiff theories to recover funds — often running headlong into the UCC’s traditional allocation of risk.

In this episode of The Crypto Exchange, hosts Ethan Ostroff and Genna Garver look back at 2025 — ultimately a pivotal year for digital assets and crypto regulation in the U.S. — drawing on Troutman Pepper Locke’s flagship publication, Financial Services Industry 2025 Digital Assets Year in Review. The report reflects insights from more than 10 of our firm’s practice areas and more than 30 attorneys, offering a comprehensive, cross-practice view of how the regulatory landscape is evolving.

In this episode of The Consumer Finance Podcast, Chris Willis and Lori Sommerfield unpack the rapid reshaping of the fair lending and UDAAP regulatory enforcement landscape as part of the Year in Review and Look Ahead series. They cover the federal government’s efforts to roll back use of the disparate impact theory, reduce redlining and other enforcement actions, and implement the new debanking initiative, along with the CFPB’s evolving expectations concerning ECOA and Section 1071, and growing state-level oversight as state attorneys general, state regulators, and new state AI/disparate impact regimes fill the federal gap. With long statutes of limitations and 2026 rulemakings ahead, they underscore why financial institutions cannot relax fair lending and UDAAP compliance, even amid apparent federal retreat.

In this episode of The Consumer Finance Podcast, host Chris Willis is joined by Consumer Financial Services Practice Group leadership Michael Lacy and Simon Fleischmann to preview the firm’s annual Consumer Financial Services Year in Review and Look Ahead publication. They describe how the publication provides concise summaries of the past year’s key trends, cases, and regulatory developments — along with informed predictions for 2026 and beyond — across areas such as consumer class actions, bankruptcy, credit reporting, digital assets, mass arbitration, mortgage and auto finance, payment processing, and privacy and data security. They also introduce an upcoming companion podcast series featuring several of the publication’s section authors.

In this episode of The Consumer Finance Podcast, host Chris Willis examines signs that the CFPB is reactivating its supervisory and enforcement functions after a period of relative inactivity. The discussion notes reports that the CFPB plans to restart supervisory exams — likely remote, less burdensome, and focused on large banks — and raises questions about whether those exams will address debanking, despite the CFPB’s limited jurisdiction over nonconsumer banking relationships. The conversation also underscores that some previously dormant enforcement investigations are being revived, indicating a return to a more active CFPB.

In this crossover episode, Payments Pros host Keith Barnett teams up with Regulatory Oversight host Stephen Piepgrass to unpack how prediction markets, gaming, and payments intersect in a rapidly evolving and legally uncertain landscape. Drawing on Keith’s extensive regulatory experience, they explain what prediction markets are, why these contracts are treated as swaps rather than securities, and how that distinction affects insider trading issues. Keith and Stephen then address the growing tension between federal regulators and state attorneys general over whether these products are trading or unlicensed sports betting, the CFTC chair’s recent criticism of “regulation by enforcement,” and the NCAA’s push to pause college sports contracts. They close by examining what this means for banks, payment processors, and other service providers navigating know-your-customer and “lawful transaction” obligations while the law remains in flux.

In this episode of Moving the Metal: The Auto Finance Podcast, hosts Brooke Conkle and Chris Capurso are joined by New York-based colleagues Bill Foley and Joe DeFazio to unpack the newly enacted New York FAIR Act (Fostering Affordability and Integrity through Reasonable Business Practices Act). They explain how the law fundamentally expands New York’s unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices regime (from “deceptive” to now “unfair” and “abusive” practices) broadens coverage to small businesses and nonprofits, and gives the attorney general extraterritorial enforcement tools. The discussion focuses on how auto dealers and finance companies are already being singled out by New York officials, the litigation and enforcement risks this creates, and practical compliance steps — especially around add-on products, sales practices, underwriting, and emerging technologies such as AI.

In this episode of FCRA Focus, host Kim Phan is joined by Michael Yaghi, partner in Troutman Pepper Locke’s Regulatory Investigations, Strategy + Enforcement practice group, to unpack the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation’s (DFPI) latest effort to require registration for the credit reporting industry. They discuss DFPI’s second request for comment, how it fits into California’s broader push to regulate nonbank financial services, and which entities may be swept in beyond the “big three” consumer reporting agencies — such as furnishers, data brokers, specialty credit reporting agencies, resellers, and fintechs. Kim and Michael also explore how narrowly (or broadly) the rules might be drawn, potential overlap and tension with existing FCRA requirements, what registration and reporting could mean in practice for covered entities, and what companies should be doing now as the February 26 comment deadline approaches.

In this special joint episode of The Consumer Finance Podcast and Payments Pros, Taylor Gess and Kim Phan discuss key privacy and data security risks in point-of-sale finance. They dive into regulators’ growing view that every player in the payments chain shares responsibility for protecting data, highlighting best practices for vendor management, PCI DSS oversight, and incident response planning. The episode also touches on the shifting patchwork of state privacy and breach notification laws, GLBA exemptions, and the risks of data monetization, including when packaging and selling transaction data can trigger Fair Credit Reporting Act obligations.

In this episode of Moving the Metal: The Auto Finance Podcast, hosts Brooke Conkle and Chris Capurso unpack Senator Elizabeth Warren’s February 5 data request to major auto finance companies, buy-here-pay-here dealers, and key industry trade groups about auto repossessions. They walk through the main categories of information sought — repossession activity and errors, consumer complaints and disputes, policies and training, vendor contracts, and handling of personal property — and discuss the tight 11-day response deadline and lack of a clear statutory hook for the request. Brooke and Chris also consider what this move may signal about future regulatory and enforcement activity in the auto finance space.