On January 25, the Florida Office of Financial Regulation (OFR) issued an investor advisory “to raise awareness about decentralized finance (DeFi), a relatively new blockchain-based group of financial services gaining popularity[.]” The OFR defines DeFi as “financial services provided by an algorithm on a blockchain, without a traditional financial services company.” The advisory describes DeFi,
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita started 2022 by announcing his intention to continue aggressively pursuing robocallers and summarizing the actions taken by his office in 2021. This included calling on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to revise its rules to increase accountability, implementing new technologies to shorten the time for the AG to investigate complaints
On January 20, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued an advisory opinion on the impact of the Trade Regulation Rule Concerning Preservation of Consumers’ Claims and Defenses (Holder Rule) on the recovery of attorneys’ fees and costs above the amount paid on a consumer receivable arising out of a financed sale of goods or services.
On January 10, the Federal Trade Commission’s final rule, amending the Standards for Safeguarding Customer Information (Safeguards Rule) under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), became effective. We wrote about the final rule when it first published in October 2021 (see here). As a practical matter, the amendments will likely require many financial institutions to
On December 8, 2021, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published the 25th edition of its Supervisory Highlights report, which summarized key findings from examinations completed between January 2021 and June 2021. While the report covers a number of areas of consumer finance, it specifically stated the CFPB “is prioritizing mortgage servicing supervision work
On January 10, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued an alert about a new cryptocurrency payment scam involving impersonators convincing consumers to send money obtained from a cryptocurrency automated teller machine (ATM) via a quick response (QR) code.
According to the FTC, this is a new twist on scammers pretending to be someone a person
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and Department of Justice (DOJ) issued joint letters, restating the federal housing protections afforded to military servicemembers during the COVID-19 pandemic. While some protections have been in place for decades, others reflect pandemic-era relief from landlords and mortgage companies alike.
One of the letters addresses the handling of
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has a new target: overdraft fees. In a December 1 press call, CFPB Director Rohit Chopra targeted the use of overdraft fees in the consumer banking industry, claiming that some banks are “hooked on exploitative junk fees that can quickly drain a family’s bank account.” The CFPB, he said,
On December 16, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued orders to five companies offering buy now, pay later (BNPL) products. BNPL programs are designed to allow consumers to purchase goods and to defer payment over a short term with little to no interest, but with the potential for fees in the event of nonpayment.
On November 29, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) settled a lawsuit by the National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA) challenging the formation and operation of the Taskforce on Federal Consumer Financial Law (the Taskforce). The Taskforce was formed in October 2019 by then-CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger to examine the existing consumer financial services legal
