Kaley Schafer |schaferk@ballardspahr.com | 202 777.6990 | view full bio

Kaley has a background in regulatory compliance and counsels on BSA/AML requirements, as well as other federal consumer financial regulations.  Prior to her role at Ballard Spahr, Kaley served as Director of Regulatory Compliance at the National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions, where she led the regulatory compliance team in developing new compliance materials and tools for NAFCU members, including as to BSA/AML issues.

The CFPB recently announced that the Filing Instruction Guide (FIG) for the submission of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data collected in 2025 is now available. The FIG, issued by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, may be accessed here.

HMDA data for 2025 must be submitted on or before March 2, 2026.… Continue Reading

Judge Randy Crane (S.D. Tex) ruled on August 26, 2024 that the CFPB did not exceed its authority under Dodd Frank when it issued its final Section 1071 small business lending rule. The court also rejected other Administrative Procedure Act (APA) challenges to the rule. However, the court did not issue a final judgment as, at that time, the court still had to rule on the two motions filed by certain plaintiff-intervenors: first, to amend their complaint to add a claim based on the illegality of the CFPB being funded by the Federal Reserve Board, when since September, 2022, “the combined earnings of the Federal Reserve System” has been negative and second, for judgment on the pleadings.… Continue Reading

On August 26, 2024, Chief Judge Randy Crane in the S.D. Texas granted summary judgment to the CFPB, denied summary judgment to the trade groups and upheld the CFPB’s 1071 Rule (small business loan data collection rule).

On August 2, 2024, the Farm Credit Intervenors (three organizations who long ago intervened as plaintiffs in order to take advantage of a preliminary injunction against the CFPB granted to the original plaintiffs based on the Fifth Circuit’s opinion in CFSA v.… Continue Reading

We are very fortunate to have Nick St. John, Director of Federal Compliance at America’s Credit Unions, as our guest speaker in this podcast on the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking issued by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and federal banking regulators regarding the enhancement and modernization of anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terrorism (“AML/CFT”) compliance programs under the Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”).… Continue Reading

The CFPB announced the availability of its beta platform for the small business lending data collection rule pursuant to section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act.

The CFPB has invited financial institutions to test the platform by uploading and using test files provided in the CFPB’s test file repository, or by uploading the financial institution’s own test or sample files.… Continue Reading

In a tentative win for the CFPB, a federal judge in Texas ruled on August 26, 2024, that the agency did not exceed its authority when it issued its final Section 1071 small business lending rule.  The court also rejected other Administrative Procedure Act (APA) challenges to the rule.  However, the court did not issue a final judgment, as it still has to rule on the motion of certain intervenors to amend their complaint to add a claim focused on the legality of the CFPB being funded by the Federal Reserve Board, when since September, 2022, the combined earnings of the Federal Reserve System has been negative.… Continue Reading

On August 7, 2024, the CFPB published an Issue Spotlight on the solar lending industry. In conjunction with the CFPB’s Issue Spotlight, the CFPB, U.S. Department of Treasury, and the Federal Trade Commission also issued a Consumer Advisory in connection with solar energy sales. All of this comes on the heels of states increasing scrutiny of solar sales practices.… Continue Reading

On August 16, 2024 the CFPB issued an updated 2025 Small Business Lending Filing Instructions Guide (the “Guide”). The Guide provides updated compliance dates that correspond to the new compliance dates.

As a refresher, the CFPB previously issued an Interim Final Rule extending the compliance dates for the Small Business Lending Rule in light of the Supreme Court’s decision finding the funding structure of the CFPB to be constitutional in CFPB v.Continue Reading

The federal banking agencies, including the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the National Credit Union Administration, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (collectively the “Agencies”), issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (“Agencies’ NPRM”) to modernize financial institutions’ anti-money laundering and countering terrorist financing (“AML/CFT”) programs.… Continue Reading