After reviewing the licensing/chartering/approval structures that DFS uses for entities seeking to engage in virtual currency activities, we discuss the role of guidance in DFS’s regulation and oversight of virtual currency, particularly new DFS guidance on digital asset custody practices and DFS expectations for how entities acting as digital asset custodians can better protect customers in the event of an insolvency or similar proceeding. … Continue Reading
Podcasts
This week’s podcast episode: How the U.S. Supreme Court will decide the threat to the CFPB’s funding and structure: Part II, with Adam J. White, a renowned expert on Separation of Powers and the Appropriations Clause and a close follower of the Supreme Court
By Barbara S. Mishkin on
The eyes of the consumer finance world are now on the Supreme Court as it decides whether to grant the CFPB’s certiorari petition in Consumer Financial Services Association Ltd. v. CFPB. In the decision, a Fifth Circuit panel held the CFPB’s funding mechanism violates the Appropriations Clause of the U.S.… Continue Reading
This week’s podcast episode: How the U.S. Supreme Court will decide the threat to the CFPB’s funding and structure: Part I, with Adam J. White, a renowned expert on Separation of Powers and the Appropriations Clause and a close follower of the Supreme Court
By Barbara S. Mishkin on
The eyes of the consumer finance world are now on the Supreme Court as it decides whether to grant the CFPB’s certiorari petition in Consumer Financial Services Association Ltd. v. CFPB. In the decision, a Fifth Circuit panel held the CFPB’s funding mechanism violates the Appropriations Clause of the U.S.… Continue Reading
This week’s podcast episode: An update on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the consumer financial services industry, with special guest Naomi Mercer, Senior Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, American Bankers Association
By Barbara S. Mishkin on
Posted in Diversity and Inclusion, Podcasts
We first discuss the multiple benefits of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) for financial institutions, the challenges and opportunities institutions face in implementing a DEI strategy, and how DEI applies beyond an institution’s workforce. We then consider the risk of discrimination claims arising from DEI programs and the role of legal counsel in the development and implementation of DEI strategies. … Continue Reading
This week’s podcast episode: Is the U.S. payments system failing business and consumers? A discussion with special guest Dan Awrey, Professor of Law, Cornell Law School
By Barbara S. Mishkin on
After discussing the core features of the U.S. payments systems, we look at how those features have impacted the experience of U.S. business and consumers and why Professor Awrey believes they have resulted in a payments system that is worse, more expensive, and slower than payments systems in other large, developed countries. … Continue Reading
This week’s podcast episode: A look at the Federal Trade Commission’s proposed rule for auto dealers from the perspective of auto dealers and auto finance companies, with special guests Paul Metrey, Senior Vice President for Regulatory Affairs, National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), and Richard Hackett, Regulatory Compliance Consultant and former Assistant Director, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
By Barbara S. Mishkin on
The FTC’s proposal would impose a number of new substantive and disclosure requirements on auto dealers in connection with the car buying or leasing process. We first discuss NADA’s comment letter to the FTC on the proposal, including NADA’s concerns with the process used by the FTC to issue the proposal and with the proposal’s disclosure, recordkeeping, website posting, and other requirements. … Continue Reading
This week’s podcast episode: A look at the consumer financial products offered by fintechs and the regulatory issues they raise, with special guests Penny Lee, Chief Executive Officer, Financial Technology Association (FTA), and Gerron Levi, Senior Vice President and Head of Government Affairs, American Fintech Council (AFC)
By Barbara S. Mishkin on
We begin with a discussion of the goals and themes of FTA’s recent summit and AFC’s advocacy regarding retention of the strategic plan option under the Community Reinvestment Act. We then discuss consumer benefits of buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) and regulatory concerns raised by the CFPB in its BNPL report, state level regulatory issues facing fintechs, the Treasury’s report on bank/fintech relationships and takeaways for fintechs, consumer benefits of earned wage access products and artificial intelligence and regulatory concerns raised by the CFPB, and reactions to the CFPB’s Section 1033 rulemaking.… Continue Reading
This week’s podcast episode: A close look at earned wage access (EWA) products, with special guest Molly Jones, Vice President for Government Affairs, PayActiv
By Barbara S. Mishkin on
Posted in Earned Wage Access, Podcasts
PayActiv, which as the first EWA provider began an EWA program about 13 years ago, partners with employers to offer their employees EWA. We first discuss what EWA is, the structure of the employer model used by PayActiv and other EWA providers, and how employers participate in and employees access their wages in the employer model. … Continue Reading
This week’s podcast episode: Using financial technology to improve consumers’ financial health, a conversation with special guest Leigh Phillips, President and CEO of SaverLife and Chair of the CFPB’s Consumer Advisory Board (CAB)
By Barbara S. Mishkin on
SaverLife is a national non-profit sponsored by some of the nation’s leading financial institutions that uses financial technology to improve the financial health of low- to-moderate income consumers by incentivizing savings through prizes, rewards, expert resources, and gameplay. We first discuss SaverLife’s objectives and how its online platform operates. We then discuss a range of issues, including the goals of the CFPB’s Section 1033 rulemaking, Saverlife’s perspective on the growing use of earned wage access and buy-now-pay later products, and the role of the CAB and issues under consideration by the CAB.… Continue Reading
This week’s podcast episode: Recent enforcement activities of state attorneys general, with special guest Shennan Kavanaugh, Division Chief, Consumer Protection Division (CPD), Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office
By Barbara S. Mishkin on
Posted in Podcasts, State Enforcement
While most attention is focused on the CFPB, state attorneys general are very active in investigating and enforcing state laws relating to consumer financial services (and often federal laws when incorporated into state law or when using their Dodd-Frank authority). We first discuss the CPD’s priorities and how they are determined; use of its state law UDAP authority and available remedies; enforcement of federal law; and collaboration with the CFPB and other state AGs.… Continue Reading