The CFPB recently ordered a bank to cancel garnishment fees, review its system for processing garnishment orders, cease using contracts which limit consumer rights, and pay a $10 million penalty to the CFPB’s Civil Penalty Fund.  

The garnishment process is a method for creditors to recover amounts that a judgment debtor owes from a third party that holds the judgment debtor’s assets, such as a deposit account held by a bank. … Continue Reading

Around the nation, regulators are preparing to implement and enforce new consumer-like disclosure laws for small business commercial finance providers.

New York regulators have yet to issue final regulations implementing the state’s Commercial Finance Disclosure Law (CFDL), which went into effect on January 1, 2022.  As we previously reported, the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) advised that commercial finance providers’ obligations under the CFDL do not ripen until the NYDFS “issues final implementing regulations and those regulations take effect.” … 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

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

The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation has published a fourth round of modifications to implement SB 1235, the bill signed into law on September 30, 2018 that requires consumer-like disclosures to be made for certain commercial financing products, including small business loans and merchant cash advances.  The law contains exemptions and carve-outs for, among other things, depository institutions, financings of more than $500,000, closed-end loans with a principal amount of less than $5,000, and transactions secured by real property. … Continue Reading

On October 20, 2021, the New York Department of Financial Services published a notice in the New York State Register announcing that it has issued a proposed regulation to implement S 5470–B, which requires consumer-like disclosures for “commercial financing” transactions of $2.5 million or less.  Comments on the proposal must be submitted by December 19, 2021.… Continue Reading