A California federal district court has refused to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the CFPB in January 2017 against several law firms and attorneys alleging that the defendants violated the FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) and the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) by illegally charging upfront fees for debt relief services which were disguised as fees for bankruptcy services. … Continue Reading

The CFPB has issued its May 2017 complaint report highlighting complaints from “older consumers,” who the CFPB defines as consumers who voluntarily reported their age as 62 or older.  The CFPB reports that consumers voluntarily reported their age in 54 percent of complaints.

General findings include the following:

  • As of April 1, 2017, the CFPB handled approximately 1,163,200 complaints nationally, of which approximately 103,100 (9 percent) were submitted by older consumers, including approximately 2,200 older consumer complaints in March 2017. 
… Continue Reading

On May 26, the House of Representatives Committee on Rules announced that House members have until June 2 to propose amendments to the Financial Choice Act bill.  The Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Jeb Hensarling, is expected to introduce an amendment to strike from the bill the provision which purports to repeal the Durbin Amendment. … Continue Reading

The federal banking agencies together with the National Credit Union Administration (the “Agencies”) issued an Interagency Advisory on the Availability of Appraisers that is intended to help address the real estate appraiser shortages being experienced by lending institutions.

Pursuant to the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA), the Agencies require the institutions they regulate to obtain a real estate appraisal from a state licensed or certified appraiser in any federally related transaction, unless an exemption applies. … Continue Reading

American Banker has reported that the Government Accountability Office has accepted a request from Senator Pat Toomey on whether the CFPB’s indirect auto finance guidance issued in March 2013 is a “rule” under the Congressional Review Act (CRA).  It reported that the GAO also accepted a similar request from Senator Toomey regarding the leveraged lending guidance issued jointly by the OCC, Fed and FDIC. … Continue Reading

Tom Dresslar, the Deputy Commissioner for Policy and Planning at the California Department of Business Oversight, California’s state bank regulator, has retired.  Mr. Dresslar joined the DBO in late 2014 after a long career in California state government and, before that, as the Sacramento Bureau Chief for the Daily Journal, Los Angeles’s daily legal newspaper. … Continue Reading

On May 24, 2017, the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (D.C. Circuit) held oral argument in the PHH case, which we have blogged about extensively. The constitutionality of the CFPB’s structure was the central issue at the oral argument, occupying the vast majority of the time and the judges’ questions.… Continue Reading

The CFPB’s Office of Servicemember Affairs (OSA) has issued its fifth annual report to Congress addressing issues raised and complaints submitted by servicemembers, veterans, and their families.

This year, however, the Bureau took a novel approach by presenting the report “within the construct of the ‘military lifecycle’” in an attempt to “consider issues and complaints in the very context in which they arise.”… Continue Reading

Tuesday, President Trump released an outline of his FY 2018 Budget entitled “A New Foundation for American Greatness”.  There is good news and bad news for the CFPB, although most of it is bad news.  The good news for the CFPB is that the Administration does not propose to abolish the CFPB. … Continue Reading

Adding to the growing body of cases disputing the CFPB’s authority to issue civil investigative demands (“CID”), a U.S. district court judge in the Central District of California, on May 17, rejected multiple challenges and ordered a company to comply with a CID within fifteen days of the decision. The defendant, Future Income Payments, previously attempted a John Doe challenge to the CID in the U.S.… Continue Reading