Mindy Harris

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Earlier this month, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) issued cease-and-desist letters to a cryptocurrency exchange and a fintech, demanding that each of these entities immediately stop making false and misleading statements about FDIC coverage of their financial products. The FDIC also issued cease and desist letters to two marketing websites, demanding that they remove false and misleading statements about FDIC insurance coverage with respect to the cryptocurrency exchange.… Continue Reading

In a motion for a preliminary injunction and accompanying memorandum of points and authorities, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) is asking a California state court to order fintech Opportunity Financial LLC (OppFi) to stop facilitating loans to California borrowers from its partner FinWise Bank at interest rates above the interest rate cap (generally 36% plus the Federal Funds Rate) imposed by the California Financing Law (CFL).… Continue Reading

On December 13, 2022, the FDIC issued a request for comment on a proposal to modernize the regulations governing use of the FDIC’s official signage and advertising of FDIC-insured status by insured depository institutions (IDIs), and to clarify regulations issued earlier in 2022 regarding misrepresentations of deposit insurance coverage.  The proposed rule was published in the Federal Register on December 21, 2022 and comments are due no later than February 21, 2023.… Continue Reading

The OCC’s announcement that it will establish an Office of Financial Technology to “bolster the agency’s expertise and ability to adapt to a rapidly changing banking landscape” should come as no surprise to those who have been following recent pronouncements of Acting Comptroller Michael J. Hsu.

Over the past few months, Mr.… Continue Reading

Opportunity Financial LLC (OppFi) has filed a cross-complaint against the Commissioner of California’s Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI), asserting that the DFPI’s reliance on the so-called “true lender doctrine” in order to subject OppFi to interest rate limitations under the California’s Financing Law (CFL) constitutes adoption and enforcement of an “underground regulation”, which is impermissible under California’s Administrative Procedure Act (APA). … Continue Reading

In a letter dated October 11, 2022 to Acting Comptroller Michael J. Hsu, Patrick McHenry, the ranking member of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services, and four other Republican representatives, asked Mr. Hsu to respond to pointed questions about the OCC’s planned role in support of bank-fintech partnerships. … Continue Reading

In remarks at the DC Fintech Week conference on October 11, 2022 and in a keynote address later the same day at a roundtable conducted by the Harvard Law School  Program on International Financial Systems, Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael J. Hsu expressed concerns about risks to consumers and the financial system posed by crypto industry participants.… Continue Reading

A California state court has overruled the demurrer filed by Opportunity Financial, LLC (OppFi) to the cross-complaint filed by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) in which OppFi asked the court to reject the DFPI’s “true lender” challenge.  In its cross-complaint, the DFPI alleges that California usury law applies to loans made through OppFi’s partnership with FinWise Bank (Bank) because OppFi, and not the Bank, was the “true lender.”… Continue Reading