Elanor A. Mulhern

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Following their announcement last July regarding their plans to coordinate on a range of consumer financial protection issues , the CFPB Director and his European counterpart, the Commissioner for Justice and Consumer Protection of the European Commission, have released a joint statement highlighting some areas those coordinated efforts have identified for ongoing monitoring and particular focus.… Continue Reading

Federal News Wire – a non-partisan news group focusing on the activities of federal agencies – has issued a Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) request to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, seeking a list of all organizations who have received payments from the Bureau’s “Civil Penalty Fund” (“CPF”) since the Bureau’s formation in 2011.… Continue Reading

The Consumer Bankers Association (“CBA”) recently published a letter it sent to the CFPB describing the information that banks typically use for identity verification and fraud prevention and addressing the impact of subjecting such information to the requirements of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”).

The letter is a response to CFPB Director Chopra’s recent remarks detailing proposed changes to the FCRA.… Continue Reading

The CFPB has issued its “Consumer Response Annual Report,” which analyzes patterns and trends in the approximately 1,287,000 consumer complaints submitted to the Bureau in 2022.  The annual report is required by the Consumer Financial Protection Act.  

The CFPB indicated that the largest increase in complaints, accounting for more than 75% of all consumer complaints, was related to dissatisfaction with credit reporting, including inaccurate information on credit reports and improper use of reports. … Continue Reading

A judge in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California recently ordered the defendants in CashCall, Inc. (which included CashCall Inc.’s CEO Paul Reddman) to pay $134 million in restitution and $33 million in civil penalties.  The decision comes after the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s 2016 award of summary judgment to the CFPB, finding the defendants had violated the CFPA. … Continue Reading

In conjunction with efforts to forgive federal student debt for certain borrowers, President Biden’s Justice Department recently announced new guidance for its attorneys to use when deciding whether to recommend that a bankruptcy judge discharge an individual’s federal student loans. 

The guidance seeks to streamline the process of discharging federal student debt which, unlike other consumer debt, is not automatically discharged through bankruptcy. … Continue Reading

Last week, the CFPB filed a lawsuit against ACTIVE Network LLC (“Active”), an online event registration company, in a Texas federal district court alleging that the company is deceiving customers into joining its fee-based membership club, “Active Advantage.”  Event organizers seeking to host community activities such as youth camps and charity race events contract with Active to provide online registration and payment processing services. … Continue Reading

In a blog post that appeared last week, the CFPB reported on research into various factors considered significant in explaining current credit card interest rates.  The CFPB reported that over 175 million Americans have at least one credit card, half of which carry a balance that continues to accrue increasingly high interest rates. … Continue Reading

Proponents of the Payday Loan Interest Rate Cap ballot initiative in Michigan met the June 1, 2022 deadline to appear on the November 2022 ballot in the state.  If not picked up by the state legislature this summer, the proposal would ask voters to approve a state statute capping payday loan interest rates, that can currently reach over 370% APR, at no more than 36% APR.… Continue Reading

A federal district court judge in the Southern District of New York ruled late last week that three credit unions had successfully established a likelihood of success on their claims that the retroactive application of New York’s recently-passed rate reduction law constitutes a regulatory taking in violation of the U.S. Constitution and preliminarily enjoined state sheriffs’ offices from enforcing the law.… Continue Reading