Firm News

The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) has entered into a consent order with a commercial lender and one individual owner to resolve two related charges that the lender, along with one related business defendant and three individual defendants violated: (i) Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (prohibiting unfair and deceptive acts and practices) by requiring terms it expressly represented it did not require, collecting more than what was owed and using unjustified confessions of judgments and threats on borrowers; and (ii) Section 522 of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (prohibiting fraudulently obtaining customer information of a financial information) by fraudulently obtaining borrowers’ bank information to effect the alleged unfair and deceptive practices. The action against the other three defendants remains ongoing. Read More

How many times have you heard someone suggest giving the regulator a call?

Legal issues arising in connection with statutes and regulations that are subject to a state or federal regulatory authority can and frequently do involve difficult interpretations. The statutes and regulations often contain ambiguities, lack of definitiveness and, all too frequently, apparently contradictory provisions. Sorting through this morass and applying rules of statutory construction is the job of an attorney. There is no substitute for legal training and experience in resolving these issues to give clients appropriate guidance. Read More

The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (“DFPI”) released the final version of the implementing regulations for California’s Debt Collection Licensing Act (“DCLA”), along with final responses to comments submitted. Read More

The New York Governor signed into law S.B. 133, a bill regulating credit card rewards programs. S.B. 133 requires credit card issuers give notice to cardholders whenever they modify or cancel any accounts or rewards programs. Read More

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and Federal Reserve Board issued a joint rule in the wake of significant data security incidents and cyberattacks in the financial services sector. Read More

The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (“DFPI”) released its second set of proposed modifications to the implementing regulations for California’s Debt Collection Licensing Act (“DCLA”) in an ongoing comment process. Read More

Yesterday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit issued an order on its own authority to rehear Hunstein v. Preferred Collection and Management Services, Inc. before the entire court. The debt collector was preparing to request a rehearing but before they could, one judge on the Eleventh Circuit requested to poll the other judges and a majority of the active judges voted for rehearing. Read More

The Federal Trade Commission issued updated Standards for Safeguarding Customer Information (“Safeguards Rule”) in the wake of significant data security incidents and cyberattacks in the consumer financial services sector. Read More

The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (“DFPI”) released its fourth set of modifications to the proposed Commercial Financing Disclosure Regulations in an ongoing comment process. See our prior ALERTS dated Apr. 8, 2021 and October 14, 2021. Read More

On October 8, New York passed S.737A into law, “requiring debt collectors to inform debtors that written communications are available in large print format.” The legislation becomes effective November 7, 2021. Read More