The CFPB published guidance to remind the mortgage industry of numerous U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) policy statements that were issued before the CFPB assumed authority for enforcing the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA). The CFPB reiterates that official guidance documents issued by other agencies prior to the 2011 transfer would be applied by the CFPB unless they were superseded by law.… Continue Reading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

Last week, three farm credit trade associations filed the latest in a series of unopposed emergency motions for leave to intervene in the Texas case challenging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (“CFPB”) final small business lending rule implementing Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act (Rule). The intervenors – the Farm Credit Council, Texas Farm Credit, and Capital Farm Credit (collectively, “Farm Credit Intervenors”) – argue that the Rule imposes substantial burdens on agricultural lenders and the institutions that support them, and that the members they represent will suffer disproportionately, as the majority of their loans go to small businesses, such as farmers, ranches, and agribusinesses, covered by the Rule.… Continue Reading

Yesterday, we blogged about the opinion issued on September 8 by the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in the lawsuit brought last year by several trade associations against the CFPB. In that lawsuit, the trade associations challenged changes made by the CFPB to its UDAAP Exam Manual in March, 2022 to encompass discrimination claims within the “unfairness” prong even when such claims go well beyond the scope of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act.… Continue Reading

As we predicted long ago, on Friday, September 8, 2023, the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Texas vacated the changes made in March 2022 to the CFPB’s Exam Manual. On that date, the CFPB purported to use its authority to prohibit unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices (UDAAPs) to target discriminatory conduct, even where fair lending laws may not apply.… Continue Reading

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, joined by six other trade groups, filed a lawsuit on September 28, 2022 in a Texas federal district court against the CFPB challenging the CFPB’s recent update to the Unfair, Deceptive, or Abusive Acts or Practices (UDAAP) section of its examination manual to include discrimination.  The other plaintiffs are American Bankers Association, Consumer Bankers Association, Independent Bankers Association of Texas, Longview Chamber of Commerce, Texas Association of Business, and Texas Bankers Association.… Continue Reading

The CFPB has filed its opposition to the motion for a preliminary injunction filed by the plaintiffs in the Kentucky federal court lawsuit challenging the CFPB’s final small business lending rule (Rule).

The plaintiffs in the Kentucky lawsuit are the Kentucky Bankers Association and several Kentucky banks.  The Kentucky plaintiffs chose to file a separate lawsuit rather than intervene in the lawsuit pending in a Texas federal district court challenging the Rule filed by the American Bankers Association, Texas Bankers Association, and Rio Grande Bank and in which several credit unions, community banks, credit union and community bank trade associations, an auto floor plan lender, and a trade association for financial services companies and manufacturers in the equipment finance sector have already intervened and filed preliminary injunction motions. … Continue Reading

This past Thursday, August 31, another preliminary injunction motion was filed in the Texas lawsuit challenging the CFPB’s small business lending rule (Rule).  The latest motion was filed by XL Funding, LLC d/b/a Axle Funding, LLC (Axle) and the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association (ELFA) (collectively, the ELFA Intervenors), following the court’s entry of an order granting their motion for leave to intervene and their filing of an intervenor complaint. … Continue Reading

A group of trade associations has sent a letter to CFPB Director Chopra urging the CFPB to address the disparity that has resulted from the order entered by the Texas federal district court in the lawsuit challenging the CFPB’s small business lending rule that granted preliminary injunctive relief only to the plaintiffs and their members. … Continue Reading

The CFPB announced this week that it has entered into a proposed settlement of a lawsuit it filed in 2019 in Utah federal district court against a group of defendants who constitute the largest credit repair organizations in the United States.  Rather than targeting the quality or effectiveness of the credit repair services actually provided by the defendants, the lawsuit targeted the marketing methods allegedly used by the defendants to obtain referrals of consumers.… Continue Reading