The CFPB has banned private dispute resolution platform Ejudicate from arbitrating disputes about consumer financial products, saying that the company had misled student borrowers about the company’s neutrality and initiated sham arbitration proceedings.

The CFPB said that Ejudicate initiated those proceedings on behalf of the company Prehired—a firm which was shut down in 2023 by the CFPB and several state attorneys general, in part on the grounds that its income share agreements were illegal loans and its income share agreement program involved illegal lending practices.… Continue Reading

Today’s podcast, which repurposes a recent webinar, is the first in a two-part examination of the CFPB’s use of an interpretive rule, rather than a legislative rule, to expand regulatory requirements for buy-now, pay-later (BNPL) products. Part Two, which will be available next week, will focus on the CFPB’s use of a proposed interpretive rule to expand regulatory requirements for earned wage access (EWA) products.… Continue Reading

The Justice Department announced that Citadel Federal Credit Union has agreed to pay more than $6.5 million to resolve allegations that it engaged in a pattern or practice of redlining majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhoods in and around Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from at least 2017 through 2021 in violation of the Fair Housing Act (FHA) and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA).… Continue Reading

On October 7, the CFPB released the Fall edition of its Supervisory Highlights, “Special Edition Auto Finance,” focusing on the auto finance market. The report highlights various supervisory observations and enforcement actions taken to address issues the CFPB asserts it has seen in the auto finance sector, including deceptive marketing practices, wrongful repossessions, and failures in servicing and add-on product administration.… Continue Reading

Our podcast today focuses on negative option consumer contracts, i.e., agreements that allow a seller to assume a customer’s silence is an acceptance of an offer. Such contracts are ubiquitous in today’s marketplace.

Today’s guests are Kaitlin Caruso, a professor at the University of Maine Law School, and Prentiss Cox, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School.… Continue Reading

The CFPB is in the process of completing its final rule intended to ban the inclusion of medical debts in credit reports, bureau Director Rohit Chopra said at a White House session intended to focus on practices in the medical debt collection industry.

“Often, predatory companies threaten to put medical debt on people’s credit reports, where lenders, landlords, and employers presume their accuracy,” Chopra said, in his prepared remarks.… Continue Reading

Saying that reverse redlining is a form of discrimination, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas has refused to dismiss a discrimination case alleging that Texas developer Colony Ridge specifically targeted Limited English Proficient (LEP) people.

In issuing the ruling, the court dismissed a mortgage processing company from the suit, saying that the firm had not been involved in any lending decisions.… Continue Reading

An Illinois federal judge has dismissed a proposed class action lawsuit that alleged that two Midwestern banks failed to provide repayment disclosures to borrowers, in a case that was unique because the CFPB came to the defense of the financial institutions.

U.S. District Judge Manish Shah of the Northern District of Illinois, had asked the bureau to comment on whether the Bank of Orrick violated federal requirements to provide borrower Jose Lopez with disclosures, including how long it would take for him to repay his loan if he only paid the monthly minimum payment.… Continue Reading

In today’s podcast, which repurposes a recent webinar, we examine the impact, if any, of a landmark opinion rendered by Judge Daniel Domenico of the Federal District Court for the District of Colorado in a case challenging recently enacted Colorado legislation on interstate loans made from outside Colorado to Colorado residents.… Continue Reading

The CFPB recently issued a blog post, highlighting debt collection impacts on surviving spouses. In the blog, the CFPB warns that debt collectors who try to collect on a spouse’s medical bills from a survivor, who is not legally liable for the bills, may violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and state law.… Continue Reading