Firm Alerts

In a January 2021 blog post, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it would begin examining credit card rates and fees to ensure there is “robust and fair competition” in the credit card market. To accomplish this goal, the CFPB will focus on three areas in particular: Industry-wide practices - The CFPB argues that the credit card market, while large, has a small number of major players whose parallel shifts in business can make it more difficult for issuers to offer competitive pricing to consumers. As an example, the Bureau points to the industry practice of...

In July 2021, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) settled its lawsuit against an online marketplace loan provider. The FTC filed their initial complaint in 2018, alleging that the company engaged in unfair and deceptive acts or practices and violated the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (“GLBA”) in connection with its advertising, application process and automatic payment practices. FTC v. LendingClub Corporation, No. 18-02454 (N.D. filed Cal., Apr. 25, 2018); see our ALERT of May 21, 2018. The FTC complaint alleged that the company falsely promised consumers they would receive loans with “no hidden...

Equifax has announced its intention to include “Buy Now, Pay Later” (BNPL) payment information in consumer credit reports. BNPL programs, a form of point-of-sale financing, typically involve short term, interest free installment payments offered at checkout. An Equifax study of anonymized consumer data from a BNPL provider indicated that individuals who pay their BNPL loans on time could increase their credit score if those loans were reported to credit agencies. The BNPL trade lines included in the study were reported as revolving line of credit accounts, had five and half months of...

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...

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...

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