State Attorneys General, CFPB + FTC

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As recently discussed on our podcast here, section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (Dodd-Frank Act) amended the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) to require lenders to collect information about small business credit applications they receive, including geographic and demographic data concerning the principal owners, lending decisions, and the price of credit. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) issued its proposed rule in 2021, and after considering the over 2,500 comments it received, on March 30, 2023, the CFPB issued the massive, highly technical, and complicated Final Rule. The Final Rule and its accompanying discussion and analysis, as well as the Official Commentary totals 888 pages exclusive of the 123-page Filing Instruction Guide and numerous other documents released by the Bureau. In this fourth in a multi-post blog series (first post available here, second here, third here), we will take a closer look at the anti-discouragement provisions in the Final Rule.

Deceptive advertisements, market manipulation, misappropriation of customer funds, and “Ask Me Anything (AMA)” sessions served as the catalysts of a civil enforcement action the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently filed against bankrupt digital asset services provider Celsius Network LLC (Celsius) and its co-founders on July 13. This is a groundbreaking move by the FTC for two reasons. First, it marks the first time that the agency has filed suit against a digital asset-based company. Second, the FTC’s request for civil money penalties is predicated on a novel theory under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA). Alongside the FTC, the Department of Justice has filed criminal charges against ex-CEO Alexander Mashinsky, and the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have filed separate civil enforcement actions against Celsius.

As discussed here, on October 19, 2022, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Community Financial Services Association of America, Limited (CFSA) v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) held that the CFPB’s funding mechanism violates the appropriations clause because the CFPB does not receive its funding from annual congressional appropriations like most executive agencies, but instead, receives funding directly from the Federal Reserve based on a request by the CFPB’s director. In response, the CFPB filed a petition for a writ of certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court. On February 27, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the CFPB’s petition (discussed here).

As recently discussed on our podcast here, section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (Dodd-Frank Act) amended the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) to require lenders to collect information about small business credit applications they receive, including geographic and demographic data concerning the principal owners, lending decisions, and the price of credit. In September 2021, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) issued a proposed rule with more than 900 pages of supplementary material. The Bureau also issued a summary of the proposed rule and a chart of the data points that the rule would require creditors to collect, and it accepted approximately 2,100 comments on the proposal in January 2022. The Bureau then issued the Final Rule on March 30, 2023, with a host of supplementary materials. In this third in a multi-post blog series (first post available here, second here), we will take a closer look at what changed between the proposed rule and the Final Rule.

On June 26, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed the Florida Commercial Financing Disclosure Law (FCFDL). As discussed here, the FCFDL mandates that covered commercial financing companies provide consumer-like disclosures for certain commercial financing transactions. The law also defines and prohibits specific acts by brokers of those transactions, including the collection of advance fees.

The…

Do companies that use workplace surveillance tools to make hiring and firing decisions risk violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)? According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) in a recent comment, the answer to that question is yes. The Bureau’s official comment comes in response to a request for information…

After analyzing public feedback on pandemic-related forbearance programs and ways to automate and streamline long-term loss mitigation assistance, the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau), Rohit Chopra, issued a blogpost indicating the CFPB will be proposing ways to “simplify and streamline” mortgage servicing rules.

“Many commenters noted that borrowers seeking help…

As recently discussed on our podcast here, section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (Dodd-Frank Act) amended the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) to require lenders to collect information about small business credit applications they receive, including geographic and demographic data concerning the principal owners, lending decisions, and the price of credit. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) issued its massive, highly technical, and complicated Final Rule on March 30, 2023. In this second in a multi-post blog series (the first post is available here), we will take a closer look at the data collection and reporting requirements of the Final Rule.

On June 8, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) (collectively, the agencies) issued proposed guidance to financial institutions on how to incorporate reconsiderations of value (ROV) for…

On June 8, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had entered a consent order against medical debt collector Phoenix Financial Services for alleged violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA).

According to the CFPB, Phoenix sent collection letters to consumers who had disputed the…