CFPB, Federal Agencies, State Agencies, and Attorneys General
AB-1864, which took effect on January 1, 2021 and significantly expanded the powers of the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, required the DFPI to establish a “Financial Technology Innovation Office.”
Adam Wright, Senior Counsel, recently joined the Department’s new Office of Financial Technology Innovation, having previously served as an enforcement attorney with the…
Last week, the Federal Reserve Board published a paper on partnerships between community banks and fintech companies, “Community Bank Access to Innovation through Partnerships.” The Fed’s publication of the paper is another indication of the increased attention that regulators are paying to bank relationships with fintechs. It follows the publication at the end of last…
The OCC, FDIC, and Federal Reserve Board have issued a guide that is intended to assist community banks in conducting due diligence when considering relationships with financial technology (fintech) companies (Guide).
The issuance of the Guide follows the agencies’ July 2021 release of proposed interagency guidance for banking organizations on managing risks associated with third-party…
Maine has amended its Consumer Credit Code to target loans made using a bank partnership model. The amendments include an anti-evasion provision under which a purported agent or service provider is deemed a “lender” subject to Title 9-A, Article 2 of Maine Revised Statutes. Article 2 contains a licensing requirement and rate and fee limits…
This past Tuesday, Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu appeared as a witness at the Senate Banking Committee’s hearing, “Oversight of Regulators: Does our Financial System Work for Everyone?”
In his written and oral testimony, Mr. Hsu stressed as an overall theme the need for the OCC to prohibit “predatory and discriminatory…
The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System recently issued and invited public comment on proposed guidelines to be used by Federal Reserve Banks to evaluate requests for master accounts and/or access to Federal Reserve Bank (Fed) financial services, in order to support a more “transparent and consistent” approach to such requests.
Access to…
Yesterday, by a vote of 52-47, the Senate passed the resolution introduced by Democratic Senators under the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to overturn the OCC’s “true lender” final rule. The rule addresses when a national bank or federal savings association should be considered the “true lender” in the context of a partnership with a…
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed by the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) in D.C. federal district court seeking to block the OCC from granting a national bank charter to Figure Technologies Inc. The lawsuit represents CSBS’s third challenge to the OCC’s authority…
As discussed in our earlier blog, the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee held a hearing on April 28, 2021 entitled “The Reemergence of Rent-a-Bank?”.
The hearing focused primarily on the final “True Lender” rule issued by the OCC on October 27, 2020, which was effective December 29, 2020. The True Lender…
The Attorney Generals of the six states and District of Columbia who filed a lawsuit against the FDIC to set aside its “Madden-fix” rule have filed a motion for summary judgment in the case.
The lawsuit is pending before the same California federal district court judge (Judge Jeffrey S. White) who is…
