The Federal Reserve Board has announced that it will eliminate reputational risk as a component of examination programs in its supervision of banks.

The Fed joins the OCC in eliminating reputational risk as a part of their examinations.

The Fed stated it has commenced the process of reviewing and eliminating references to reputational risk from its supervisory materials, including examination manuals.… Continue Reading

We are releasing today on our podcast show a repurposed webinar that we produced on June 11, 2025 entitled “What is happening at the federal agencies that is relevant to the residential mortgage and settlement service industries.”

During this podcast, we will inform you about recent developments at federal agencies, including the CFPB, HUD/FHA, OCC, FDIC, FRB and USDA (collectively, the “Agencies”), as well as Congress, the White House, states and the courts.… 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

The House has passed legislation that would ban “trigger leads,” except in limited circumstances.

The “Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act of 2025,” H.R. 2808, passed the House by voice vote. The Senate has passed, S. 1467, a slightly different version of the bill by unanimous consent. The two bodies must now reconcile differences between their bills.… Continue Reading

Having previously announced that it was withdrawing its Buy Now, Pay Later rule, the CFPB recently said that it does not intend to issue a revised rule.

“The Bureau has determined that it does not intend to reissue the BNPL Interpretive Rule because it was procedurally defective and the interpretation included therein applied ill-fitting open-end credit regulations to BNPL products, which are generally structured as closed-end loans,” the CFPB said, in a status report it submitted in a lawsuit filed by the Financial Technology Association.  … Continue Reading

The OCC has mounted a vigorous defense of federal preemption, calling it “a cornerstone of the dual banking system, under which federally and state-charted banks operate alongside each other.”

“Federal preemption has proven to be a powerful enabler of local and national prosperity and growth,” Acting Comptroller Rodney Hood wrote in a letter to Brandon Milhorn, President and CEO of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, who called for rescinding the preemption rules.… Continue Reading

The Senate parliamentarian has ruled that a key Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs (Banking Committee) provision that would eliminate all funding for the CFPB cannot be included in the massive budget reconciliation bill now being prepared for Senate consideration.

Under the existing funding structure, the CFPB may draw up to 12% of the Federal Reserve’s inflation-adjusted total operating expenses in 2009.… Continue Reading

A debt collector company, Blackstone Legal, its associated companies and its owners, Ryan and Mitchell Evans, are facing a permanent ban from the debt collection business as a result of an FTC lawsuit charging that they deceived and harassed consumers to collect debts the consumers did not owe.

In February 2025, the FTC charged Blackstone Legal and its associated companies and owners with convincing consumers to pay fake debts.… Continue Reading

As previously reported, in addressing the fact that current stays of the section 1071 small business data collection and reporting rule only apply to the applicable plaintiffs, intervenors and their members, the CFPB advised in May 2025 that it would not make enforcement of the rule a priority in order to provide relief to parties not covered by any court stay of the rule.… Continue Reading

Our podcast show being released today is Part 2 of our two-part series featuring two former CFPB senior officers who were key employees in the Enforcement Division under prior directors: Eric Halperin and Craig Cowie. Eric Halperin served as the Enforcement Director at the CFPB from 2010 until former Director, Rohit Chopra, was terminated by President Trump.… Continue Reading