The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia issued an administrative order on Sunday, March 22 that covers public health and safety concerns related to the coronavirus (“COVID-19”). In it, the Court recognizes “the current COVID-19 crisis creates an unprecedented public health emergency that requires immediate action to encourage effective social distancing and reduce the
Another Circuit Court of Appeals has weighed in on the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s structure, on the very day that the Supreme Court of the United States heard argument on the same question. In CFPB v. All American Check Cashing, Inc., et al, a divided panel of the Fifth Circuit held
The Safeguards Rule of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 requires financial institutions to implement security programs in order to keep customer information secure. The Safeguards Rule also extends contractually to affiliates and/or service providers of those financial institutions, including possibly “finders” (i.e., entities charging a fee to connect consumers looking for loans to lenders).
As
On March 6, the Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado against BoostMyScore LLC (“Boost”), BMS, Inc., and William O. Airy – the principal operator of both Boost and BMS. The complaint alleges that the defendants violated the FTC Act, Credit Repair Organizations Act, and
The Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection division recently issued a staff perspective paper on the consumer protection issues facing small business financing. The paper follows the agency’s “Strictly Business” forum, held in May 2019, which examined trends in the marketplace, including online loans and alternative financing products. “The agency remains committed to protecting
In many of the settlement agreements and stipulated orders in the FTC’s recently released 2019 Privacy and Data Security Update, the FTC repeatedly imposed a set of uniform mandates for businesses to implement following a data breach. Businesses subject to the new California Consumer Privacy Act may be able to use this mandate to
On Friday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published a supplement to its Spring 2019 notice of proposed rulemaking on third-party debt collection. The proposed supplemental rule addresses the collection of time-barred debt, which is debt that has run past any applicable statute of limitations.
Specifically, the proposed supplemental rule requires debt collectors to make
On February 4, the Federal Communications Commission issued seven letters to certain United States phone companies that provide gateway service for international robocalls into stateside networks, directing them to cooperate in tracing back those calls. The companies are used as gateways into the United States for robocalls that originate overseas; thus, are uniquely situated to
Recently, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released its Supervisory Highlights, No. 21 (Winter 2020) (“the Report”). The Report discusses findings related to many of the CFPB’s examinations regarding debt collection, mortgage servicing, payday lending, and student loan servicing that were completed between April and August 2019.
Key takeaways from the Report are as follows:
Debt
On January 29, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Comprehensive Credit Act (“the Act”). Packaging several Democrat-sponsored bills together, the Act garnered the support of all but two of the present House Democrats. If enacted into law, the Act would significantly change the information that credit reports can contain, expand the processes available
