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Having sent orders last month to five companies that offer buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) products directing them to provide information to the Bureau, the CFPB published a notice in today’s Federal Register seeking public comment to inform its inquiry into BPNL products.  Comments must be filed by March 25, 2022.

In a blog post about the request for comments, the CFPB indicated that “some analysts have suggested that BNPL has rerouted big holiday shopping money away from the credit card companies towards these companies, putting an enormous amount of consumer debt on their books.” … Continue Reading

In a letter to three representatives of consumer advocacy groups, CFPB Acting General Counsel Seth Frotman indicated that due to “repeated reports of confusion” caused by the CFPB’s November 2020 advisory opinion (AO) on earned wage access (EWA) programs, he plans to recommend to Director Chopra “that the CFPB consider how to provide greater clarity on these types of issues.”… Continue Reading

The D.C. federal district court has granted the motions filed by the CFPB and the Consumer Financial Services Association (CFSA) to dismiss the lawsuit brought by the National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders (NALCAB).  (The CFSA had intervened in the lawsuit.)  In the lawsuit, the NALCAB sought to overturn the CFPB’s July 2020 final rule (2020 Rule) rescinding the “ability-to-repay” (ATR) or “mandatory underwriting provisions” in its 2017 final payday/auto title/high-rate installment loan rule (2017 Rule).… Continue Reading

The Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) has withdrawn its lawsuit filed in D.C. federal district court in December 2020 seeking to block the OCC from granting a national bank charter to Figure Technologies Inc.  The lawsuit represented the CSBS’s third challenge to the OCC’s authority to issue special purpose national bank (SPNB) charters to non-depository fintech companies or to uninsured deposit-taking fintechs. … Continue Reading

The CFPB has issued a compliance bulletin and policy guidance on medical debt collection and consumer reporting requirements in connection with the No Surprises Act.

The No Surprises Act sets forth requirements that apply to certain individuals who receive care from an out-of-network provider that furnishes emergency services, inpatient services an in-network facility, or air ambulance services. … Continue Reading

The CFPB filed a complaint earlier this week in a New York federal district court against three companies that purchase defaulted debts (Corporate Defendants) and three individuals who are owners and/or officers of the Corporate Defendants (Individual Defendants).  (Click here to read the statement from United Holding Group, LLC, one of the Corporate Defendants, about the lawsuit.)… Continue Reading

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has scheduled oral argument in the rehearing en banc in Hunstein v. Preferred Collection and Management Services, Inc. for February 22, 2022.  After ordering the rehearing en banc in November 2021, the Eleventh Circuit issued a memorandum indicating that for purposes of the rehearing, the Court wanted counsel to focus their briefs on the question: “Does Mr.… Continue Reading

The New York Department of Financial Services has issued a letter announcing that it has concluded that the obligation of providers of commercial financing under the Commercial Finance Disclosure Law (CFDL) to provide consumer-like disclosures does not arise “until the Department issues final implementing regulations and those regulations take effect.”

The CFDL was enacted by S 5740-B and requires consumer-like disclosures for “commercial financing” transactions of $2.5 million or less. … Continue Reading

American Banker has reported that beginning in the next few weeks, Equifax will add a business industry code for buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) transactions to allow such transactions to appear on credit reports.  It also reported that TransUnion is working on its own BNPL credit reporting service.

The growth in consumer use of BNPL is leading to more scrutiny of the product. … Continue Reading

The FTC’s recent announcement that it has entered into a settlement with two of the defendants (RAM Capital Funding LLC and Tzvi Reich) in a lawsuit filed by the FTC against two merchant cash advance providers and three of their officers for alleged violations of the FTC Act serves as a reminder of the FTC’s continuing focus on small business financing as well as the FTC Act’s application to business-to-business activity.… Continue Reading