Fintech

Subscribe to Fintech

The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) has filed its opposition to Opportunity Financial, LLC’s (OppFi) Demurrer to the DFPI’s cross-complaint.  In the Demurrer, OppFi asks the California trial court to reject the DFPI’s attempt to apply California usury law to loans made through OppFi’s partnership with FinWise Bank (Bank) by alleging…

The CFPB has posted new job openings for technologists to work with its supervision and enforcement teams.  The CFPB is seeking experts in data science, software engineering, product design, product management, and user experience (UX).  The job postings indicate that the CFPB is willing to invest significant resources in building its understanding of and capability…

We discuss key regulatory issues for innovative products such as buy-now-pay later, longer term installment loans, delay pay, and card-based products (such as “virtual cards”).  We look at the different ways these products can be structured and the impact of  these differences on applicable legal requirements, such as disclosures and licensing.  We also look at…

Delivering the keynote address last week at the Consumer Federation of America’s 2022 Consumer Assembly, CFPB Deputy Director Zixta Martinez indicated that the CFPB “is taking a close look” at “‘rent-a-bank’ schemes.”

Deputy Director Martinez commented that “[s]ome lenders attempt to use [relationships with banks] to evade state interest rate caps and licensing laws by…

Four Democratic members of the California state legislature recently sent a letter to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) urging the agency to take action against FDIC-supervised banks that partner with non-bank lenders to originate high-cost installment loans.

Two of the letter’s authors, California Senator Monique Limon and Assemblymember Tim Grayson, were also sponsors of…

On June 1, 2022, plaintiff Kristen Michael filed a class action lawsuit against FinTech lender Opportunity Financial, LLC (“OppFi”) on behalf of herself and a putative class alleging, inter alia, that OppFi loans money at an interest rate upwards of 130% higher than allowed by state law.  Ms. Michael alleges that OppFi offers “OppLoans”…

On May 25, 2022, my colleagues, Mike Gordon, John Culhane and Ron Vaske published a blog which reported on a press release issued by the CFPB on the prior day entitled “CFPB Launches New Effort to Promote Competition and Innovation in Consumer Finance.”  The blog stated:

In its press release, the CFPB states that “[a]fter

…

The CFPB announced earlier this week that as part of a new approach to innovation in consumer finance, it is replacing its Office of Innovation and Operation Catalyst with a new office, the Office of Competition and Innovation, and eliminating its No Action Letter (NAL) and Compliance Assistance Sandbox (CAS) programs.  In its press release…

Just one day after announcing that it was launching a new system to provide guidance to other agencies with consumer financial protection responsibilities on how the CFPB intends to enforce federal consumer financial laws, the CFPB released its first Consumer Financial Protection Circular (2022-02) addressing deceptive representations involving the FDIC’s name or logo or deposit…