Joseph J. Schuster

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Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell has reached a $2.5 million settlement with Earnest Operations LLC, a Delaware-based student loan company.

The settlement resolves allegations that the company’s lending practices violated consumer protection and fair lending laws, in part through the use of artificial intelligence (AI) models that could allegedly result in disparate harm to Black, Hispanic, and non-citizen applicants and borrowers in violation of Massachusetts law.… Continue Reading

Accusing the Trump Administration of “dismantling” the CFPB, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander is calling on city and state officials to fill the void by strengthening consumer protection laws and rules in the city and state.

“The Trump Administration’s dismantling of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)—including the elimination of 90 percent of its staff—will leave millions of Americans more vulnerable to unfair, deceptive, and abusive business practices from lenders and financial institutions of all types,” the comptroller’s office said in releasing a new report.… Continue Reading

New York Attorney General Letitia James has sued payday lenders MoneyLion Inc. and DailyPay Inc. in New York state court, alleging that the two companies took advantage of tens of thousands of New Yorkers.

Both companies make paycheck advance loans to hourly workers in exchange for tips and fees.

The short-term nature of the loans results in “outrageous” interest rates, frequently reaching 750%, according to James, who added that both companies allegedly push workers to take out frequent loans to cover gaps created by their prior loans.… Continue Reading

On Friday, April 11, a panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals modified Judge Jackson’s preliminary injunction order of March 28 pending appeal, as follows:

  1. Provision two (which required blanket reinstatement of probationary and term employees that were fired by the CFPB) stayed insofar as it requires the CFPB to reinstate employees whom defendants have determined, after an individualized assessment, to be unnecessary to the performance of defendants’ statutory duties.
… Continue Reading

The Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has issued an administrative stay of a judge’s order blocking wholesale changes at the CFPB.

The three-judge panel said the administrative stay means the CFPB is returned to the state it was in before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson issued an order blocking the possible dismantling of the CFPB.… Continue Reading

Our special podcast show today deals primarily with a 112-page opinion and 3-page order issued on March 28 by Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in a lawsuit brought, among others, by two labor unions representing CFPB employees against Acting Director Russell Vought.… Continue Reading

On Friday, March 28, Judge Amy Berman Jackson issued a 112-page opinion and 3-page order in National Treasury Employees Union, et al. v. Russell Vought, in his official capacity as Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, et al, Civil Action No. 25-0381 (D.D.C.). Judge Jackson granted a motion for Preliminary Injunction which, in broad terms, enjoined the defendants from continuing to dismantle the CFPB without Congressional authorization to do so.… Continue Reading

The CFPB intends to revoke its Buy Now, Pay Later interpretive rule, according to a status report and joint motion to stay filed by the Bureau and the Financial Technology Association (FTA) in a case brought by the FTA challenging the rule.

The revocation is one of several steps the Trump Administration is taking to reverse Biden Administration CFPB actions.… Continue Reading

Saying that its proposed brokered deposits rule would have “significantly disrupted many aspects of the deposit landscape,” the FDIC has withdrawn the proposal. 

The agency said that it no longer intends to issue a brokered deposits rule.

The FDIC proposed the rule last year, when Democrats controlled the agency. The proposal would have subjected brokered deposits to heightened regulation; it also would have expanded the definition of brokered deposits, including by eliminating certain exceptions to the rule.… Continue Reading