We have previously blogged about an enforcement action brought on July 12, 2022 by the CFPB against Populus Financial Group, Inc., d/b/a ACE Cash Express, Inc. in Federal District Court for the Northern District of Texas (Judge James E. Kinkeade). CFPB alleges in its lawsuit that Populus engaged in unfair, deceptive, and abusive acts or practices by concealing the option of a free repayment plan to consumers and making unauthorized debit-card withdrawals.… Continue Reading

On July 19, we blogged about comments Acting Comptroller Hsu made before the Exchequer Club on July 17 particularly his decision to review prior OCC preemption determinations in light of the Supreme Court’s recent opinion in Cantero v. Bank of America reversing the Second Circuit’s holding that a New York State law which requires the payment of 2% interest on mortgage escrow accounts is preempted because such law exercises control over a federal power, regardless of the magnitude of its effects.… Continue Reading

The CFPB’s latest focus on consumer fees is targeting payment processors for school lunches. The CFPB says that families who choose to purchase school lunches are being forced to pay fees to companies that process their payments.

“These fees are widespread, regressive, and may be burdensome for families and districts, who have little control over fee rates and few opportunities to shop around,” the bureau said, in releasing a report on the payment processors.… Continue Reading

Previously, in connection with the home loan program of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) we reported on the VA’s adoption of a temporary local variance allowing veterans to pay the commission of the real estate broker or agent assisting them (a “buyer-broker”). We also reported on a related enhancement made to the Issue Guaranty screen in VA’s WebLGY system.… Continue Reading

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently charged multiple entities with housing discrimination based on an asserted biased appraisal and denial of a mortgage refinance loan application based on the appraisal. Charges were brought against the appraisal company, Maverick Appraisal Group; the appraisal management company, Solidifi U.S. Inc.; the lender, Rocket Mortgage, LLC; and the individual appraiser.… Continue Reading

The FDIC is urging financial institutions it supervises to voluntarily submit self-assessments of their diversity policies and practices to the agency by Oct. 31, 2024.

The agency said that the self-assessment is not an examination requirement and that the results are not shared with examiners. The results also have no impact on an institution’s safety and soundness, its consumer compliance ratings or its Community Reinvestment Act performance evaluation, the agency said.… Continue Reading

The FDIC board on July 30 approved a notice of proposed rulemaking intended to strengthen the prudential protections of the agency’s safety and soundness rule for brokered deposits (12 CFR 337.6).

The proposal would subject brokered deposits to heightened regulation as well as expand the definition of brokered deposits, including by eliminating certain exceptions to the rule.… Continue Reading

The FDIC board on July 30 agreed to request information on deposit data that currently is not reported in the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council’s Call Reports—including data on uninsured deposits.

“Through this RFI, the FDIC is seeking information on characteristics that affect the stability and franchise value of different types of deposits to further evaluate whether and to what extent certain types of deposits may behave differently from each other, particularly during periods of economic or financial stress,” the agency said, in explaining its desire for the data.… Continue Reading

Special guest Professor Alan Trammell of Washington and Lee University School of Law joins us today for a deep dive into universal injunctions and the related topics of associational standing and judicial forum shopping, and how these elements come into play in litigation challenging regulations and other government policies and actions.… Continue Reading

FirstCash, a national pawnshop chain, is asking a federal judge to confirm that it has a statutory defense to all of the CFPB’s claims that it violated the Military Lending Act (MLA) while also asking the judge to drop three of the CFPB’s MLA claims for lack of jurisdiction—contending that the bureau has conceded that it does not have the authority to enforce those claims..… Continue Reading