CFPB, Federal Agencies, State Agencies, and Attorneys General
The FTC has recently taken action against two student loan debt relief companies and their owners.
In the first case, a federal judge has permanently banned Florida-based Start Connecting LLC and Colombia-based Start Connecting SAS (doing business as USA Student Debt Relief (USASDR)), and their owners and operators Douglas Goodman, Doris Gallon-Goodman, and Juan Rojas from the debt relief industry as well as from participating in any telemarketing.… Continue Reading
The Senate Banking, Housing and Affairs Committee (Banking Committee) would eliminate the CFPB’s current funding source, as part of Committee’s Republican version of its part of the massive budget reconciliation bill, according to legislative language released by the Banking Committee.
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
Effective May 1, 2025, the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”) amended its Consumer Arbitration Rules, including Rule 12 dealing with the registration of consumer arbitration clauses. The AAA stated that its goal was to “clarify” the rules in order to maintain “fairness” and “transparency.” Nevertheless, the recent Eleventh Circuit in its opinion Merritt Island Woodwerx, LLC v.… Continue Reading
The CFPB recently made filings with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regarding the following rules:
I am pleased to report that Ballard Spahr’s Consumer Financial Services Group was once again ranked nationally by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business in all three national consumer finance categories: Compliance, Enforcement and Investigations, and Litigation. Chambers has year-after-year ranked our Consumer Financial Services Group ever since it began ranking firms in the U.S.… Continue Reading
In its motion for a summary judgment in a lawsuit challenging the regulation, the CFPB stated it has concluded that the Section 1033 Rule (Rule) exceeds the agency’s statutory authority to create an open banking system by—among other things—requiring that consumer data be shared with third parties.
The motion states that “the limited legislative history confirms what the statute’s text and structure make clear: the statute was intended simply to ensure that consumers would have access to their own information.”… Continue Reading
Our podcast show being released today features two former CFPB senior officers who were key employees in the Supervision Division under prior directors: Peggy Twohig and Paul Sanford. Peggy was a founding executive of the CFPB when the agency was created in 2010 and led the development of the first federal supervision program over nonbank consumer financial companies.… Continue Reading
A new Maryland law deems certain earned wage access (EWA) services to be loans. It then subjects those EWA services to the Maryland Consumer Loan Law and other consumer credit provisions, restricts the acceptance of tips by certain lenders, requires licensing or registration of certain entities offering EWA services, regulates EWA service agreements, and limits the costs and fees associated with obtaining EWA services.… Continue Reading
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently signed legislation making it clear that debt collection emails sent between 9 p.m. and 8 a.m. do not violate Florida law.
Those are the hours that debt collectors are prohibited from communicating with debtors. Now, emails are excluded from that prohibition.
“The bill includes preamble clauses that acknowledge emails were not commonly used or explicitly contemplated when the Florida Legislature prohibited the practice of communicating with a consumer at night,” a Florida Legislature memo explaining the bill states.… Continue Reading
Alleging that Global Circulation, Inc. (GCI) threatened consumers with jail time, lawsuits, and wage garnishments to pressure them into paying debts they did not owe, the FTC entered into a stipulated order with GCI and its owner, Kenneth Redon III, to permanently ban them from the debt collection industry.
The defendants were also enjoined from making misrepresentations to consumer about legal obligations, making false statements to obtain payment information, and impersonating other businesses.… Continue Reading
