CFPB, Federal Agencies, State Agencies, and Attorneys General
The CFPB has issued an “Issue Spotlight” titled “Analysis of Deposit Insurance Coverage on Funds Stored Through Payment Apps.” The report was accompanied by a consumer advisory on payment apps.
Issue Spotlight. To explain its focus on deposit insurance coverage of funds stored on payment apps (or P2P platforms), the CFPB points to the recent crypto asset platform collapses and bank failures and the growth of non-traditional financial services platforms. … Continue Reading
The CFPB has issued a data spotlight that shows bank overdraft/non-sufficient funds (NSF) fee revenues have declined significantly from their pre-pandemic levels.
The report states:
Overdraft/NSF revenue for the fourth quarter of 2022 alone was approximately $1.5 billion lower than in the fourth quarter of 2019 – a decrease of 48% compared to before the pandemic, suggesting an annual reduction of over $5.5 billion going forward. … Continue Reading
The CFPB has issued a circular that addresses the reopening of closed deposit accounts (Circular 2023-02). Specifically, the circular warns that it can constitute an unfair act or practice for a financial institution to unilaterally reopen closed accounts to process debits or deposits.
By way of background, the CFPB describes a scenario in which, after a consumer has completed all of the steps required by the financial institution to close a deposit account and the financial institution has closed the account, the financial institution unilaterally reopens the account after receiving a debit or deposit to the account. … Continue Reading
On April 11, 2023, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion announced that they removed unpaid medical collections under $500 from consumer credit reports. The three companies, in July 2022, previously removed paid medical collections from credit reports, and extended the delay in medical collection reporting from sixth months after the first delinquency to one year after the first delinquency.… Continue Reading
The OCC has issued a new bulletin and the FDIC has issued new supervisory guidance directed to their supervised institutions to address “authorize positive, settle negative” (APSN) overdraft fee practices. The OCC bulletin also addresses non-sufficient funds (NSF) fee practices. Based on the bulletin and guidance, it would appear that the OCC and FDIC share the CFPB’s apparent view that APSN fees are unfair regardless of how clearly and conspicuously they are disclosed to consumers. … Continue Reading
A group of five Democratic Senators have sent a letter to the Federal Reserve, OCC, FDIC, and NCUA asking them to take several steps to protect consumers from scams when using Zelle to transfer money.
The Senators ask the four agencies “to closely review and examine the customer reimbursement and anti-money laundering (AML) practices of depository institutions that participate in the Zelle network.”… Continue Reading
A new CFPB report, “Issue Spotlight: Public Benefits Delivery & Consumer Protection,” looks at what it describes as “the challenges that recipients of public benefits programs offering cash assistance encounter in accessing funds.” The report focuses on cash assistance provided on prepaid cards because the CFPB has observed “specific recurring issues arising with the provision of benefits by that method.”… Continue Reading
North Dakota SB 2217, which passed the Republican-controlled state Senate and is currently pending in the House, seeks to prohibit the collection of interchange on the sales tax portion of electronic transactions. The bill would require payment card networks to: “Deduct the amount of any tax or fee imposed from the calculation of interchange fees specific to each form or type of electronic payment transaction at the time of settlement;” or “Rebate an amount of interchange fee proportionate to the amount attributable to the tax or fee.” … Continue Reading
The U. S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit held that the CFPB’s prepaid card rule (Prepaid Rule) does not mandate a “model clause.” The ruling was made in the lawsuit that PayPal, one of the largest digital wallet providers, filed against the CFPB in December 2019 to challenge the Prepaid Rule. … Continue Reading
On February 2, 2023, New York Governor Kathy Hochul released her 2024 fiscal budget proposal, which included banking policy to “Protect New Yorkers from Predatory Banking Fee” in the Executive Budget Briefing Book. The Briefing Book states:
“The Executive Budget includes nation-leading legislation that comprehensively addresses abusive bank fee practices, which tend to disproportionally harm low- and moderate-income New Yorkers, including stopping the opportunistic sequencing of transactions in a way designed to maximize fees charged to consumers, ending other unfair overdraft and non-sufficient funds fee practices, and ensuring clear disclosures and alerts of any permissible bank processing charges.”… Continue Reading
