California continues to be at vanguard of data privacy rights.  The latest effort by California legislators to protect consumer privacy rights focuses on data brokers, who under the proposed California Senate Bill 362, aka the “Delete Act,” would be required to recognize and honor opt-out signals from Californians.  The law seeks to expand on the deletion and opt-out rights provided under the CCPA, which currently requires a Californians to submit their deletion and opt-out requests on a company-by-company basis.… Continue Reading

On April 24, the Governor of Kansas signed into law Kansas Senate Bill 44, which enacts the Financial Institutions Information Security Act (the “Act”). The Act requires credit services organizations, mortgage companies, supervised lenders, money transmitters, trust companies, and technology-enabled fiduciary financial institutions to comply with the requirements of the GLBA’s Safeguards Rule, as in effect on July 1, 2023.… Continue Reading

On April 12, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum signed into law House Bill 1068, which creates a new statutory licensing scheme in North Dakota covering residential mortgage loan servicing activities.  This follows on the heels of the enactment last month of North Dakota Senate Bill 2090, which overhauled North Dakota’s licensing requirements related to residential mortgage lending. … Continue Reading

On April 17, the NYDFS announced the adoption of final regulations intended to shift the cost of supervision and examination of BitLicensees from the NYDFS via the implementation of direct assessments to licensees.  The new regulations will primarily only apply to those entities who hold a  BitLicense, as entities engaging in virtual currency business activities as a limited purpose trust company or a banking organization will continue to be assessed under 23 NYCRR Part 101.… Continue Reading

On April 6, 2023, the U.S. Department of the Treasury released a report examining vulnerabilities in decentralized finance (“DeFi”), including potential gaps in the United States’ anti-money laundering (“AML”) and countering the financing of terrorism (“CFT”) regulatory, supervisory, and enforcement regimes for DeFi.  The report concludes by making a series of recommendations, including the closing of “gaps” in the application of the Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”) to the extent that certain DeFi services currently fall outside the scope of the BSA’s definition of a “financial institution” covered by the BSA. … Continue Reading

On April 3, 2023, the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) released an update on the status of its State Examination System (SES).  The SES is an examination system that is intended, in part, to foster standardization and enable state-level coordination by providing a platform for state agencies, regulators, and companies to conduct company exams from start to finish.… Continue Reading

On April 11, 2023, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra spoke with the Washington Post regarding the banking industry after the failure of Silicon Valley Bank. Director Chopra, who is also a board member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, focused his messaging on the need to better educate consumers regarding when their deposits are and are not insured by the FDIC. … Continue Reading

On February 24, 2023, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (“DFPI”) released a Notice containing modifications to previously proposed regulations addressing the Consumer Financial Protection Law (“CFPL”).  The CFPL, in addition to its consumer focused provisions, contains UDAAP and reporting rules regarding certain commercial financial products and services offered to “covered entities,” which is defined to include small businesses, nonprofits, and family farms whose activities are principally directed or managed from California. … Continue Reading

On January 23, 2023, the New York Department of Financial Services released guidance with the stated goal of helping to protect customers of virtual currency businesses in the event of an insolvency or similar proceeding by imposing new custody and disclosure requirements on virtual currency entities that act as custodians.  Specifically, the guidance focuses on four areas for virtual currency entities acting as custodians (or “VCE Custodians”):

  • Segregation of and Separate Accounting for Customer Virtual Currency: A VCE Custodian is expected to (1) separately account for and segregate customer virtual currency from the corporate assets of the VCE Custodian and its affiliated entities, both on-chain and on the VCE Custodian’s internal ledger accounts; (2) avoid comingling customer virtual currency with any of the VCE Custodian’s own virtual currency or with any other non-customer virtual currency; and (3) clearly and prominently disclose the manner in which the VCE Custodian segregates and accounts for customer virtual currency. 
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On September 9, 2022, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) proposed to amend its student loan servicing regulations, which we previously covered  here.  After reviewing public comments, on January 6, 2023, the DFPI released a Notice requesting an additional round of public comments on a modified set of regulations.  … Continue Reading