Colorado has filed its supplemental en banc brief in National Association of Industrial Bankers, et al. v. Weiser, urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit to affirm the now-vacated panel majority’s interpretation of Section 525 of the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980 (DIDMCA).… Continue Reading

House and Senate committees next week will hold hearings on the “The Semi-Annual Report of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.”

The hearings will mark the first time that Trump Administration CFPB officials will testify before Congress.

The House Financial Services Committee hearing will be held at 10 a.m. on July 15, while the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs hearing will be held at 10 a.m.… Continue Reading

The latest episode of the Consumer Finance Monitor podcast examines a significant and coordinated regulatory initiative that could reshape anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) compliance across the financial services industry.

In this episode, host Alan Kaplinsky and guest Celia Cohen, a partner in Ballard Spahr’s White Collar Defense and Investigations Group, analyze the joint notice of proposed rulemaking issued by the federal banking agencies Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and National Credit Union Administration—alongside a parallel proposal from Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).… Continue Reading

Although the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under Acting Director Russell Vought has withdrawn from defending a number of Biden-era regulatory initiatives, the Bureau appears poised to revisit one of the most controversial issues in consumer credit regulation—credit card late fees.

According to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), the CFPB has submitted for interagency review a Request for Information (RFI) regarding “Credit Card Late Fees and Late Payments.”… Continue Reading

The House Financial Services Committee has approved legislation that would establish the first comprehensive federal regulatory framework for earned wage access (EWA) providers, marking a significant development for the rapidly growing industry. The bill now moves to the full House for consideration.

If enacted, the legislation would provide long-sought federal clarity for providers of earned wage access products while also addressing the continuing debate over whether these products should be regulated as loans.… Continue Reading

We have, of course, already blogged about the Supreme Court’s holding in Trump v. Slaughter, 25-332 (2026). One aspect of the decision, however, deserves separate attention because it may foreshadow future challenges to one of the FTC’s, and perhaps the CFPB’s, most significant sources of regulatory authority.

Although not necessary to the Court’s holding, Chief Justice Roberts and, even more pointedly, Justice Gorsuch questioned the extraordinary breadth of the Federal Trade Commission’s authority to define by regulation what constitutes an “unfair or deceptive act or practice” under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act.… Continue Reading

AI is already part of everyday work at growing companies. Employees use it to draft emails, summarize documents, generate marketing copy, assist with coding, and prepare meeting notes. In some organizations, that adoption has happened informally. The tools arrived first, and internal rules are still playing catch-up.

That sequence may create problems.… Continue Reading

At a May 19, 2026 Ballard Spahr webinar, “Cutting Out the Middleman: The Surge in FinTech Applications to Charter Banks, Industrial Banks and National Trust Companies,” a distinguished panel of banking, fintech, crypto, and consumer financial services experts explored one of the most important developments currently reshaping the financial services industry: the growing movement by fintech companies, payments firms, lenders, and crypto-native businesses to obtain their own banking charters rather than relying on traditional bank partnerships.… Continue Reading

The CFPB has rescinded a December 2020 advisory opinion that addressed Special Purpose Credit Programs (SPCP) offered by for-profit entities that use the common characteristics of race, color, national origin, or sex, or any combination thereof, as eligibility criteria. The advisory opinion had addressed the content of the written plan that would have been required for the SPCP and the data that could have been used to support a determination that the SPCP was necessary because people sharing those characteristics probably would not have received credit or would have received it on less favorable terms than those ordinarily available to other applicants. … Continue Reading

A federal judge, at the request of the FTC, recently ordered Cliq Inc., a payment processing company, and its operators to pay $6.5 million for violating a 2015 federal court order intended to prevent the company from assisting in consumer fraud.

U.S. District Court in Nevada entered the order finding Cliq Inc, formerly known as Cardflex Inc.,… Continue Reading