Regulatory and Enforcement

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Earlier this month, the CFPB published a report on specialty financial products, such as medical credit cards and installment loans, which are sold to patients as a way to address the growing costs of medical care. The report focuses on some of these financial products, which patients once used primarily for elective care but now use to cover everything from emergency room visits to medications to regular checkups, as well as dental and vision visits and treatment.… Continue Reading

A fintech peer-to-peer lender has entered into separate consent orders with California, Washington D.C., and Connecticut relating to its practice of requesting tips and donations in connection with the loans offered through its platform. The fintech’s platform offers opportunities for members to act as borrowers or lenders and facilitates loans between its members.… Continue Reading

On May 17, 2023, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking intended to increase transparency regarding the costs and financial outcomes of postsecondary programs. The centerpiece of the proposed regulations is a Gainful Employment (“GE”) Rule, which would terminate access to federal financial aid for career training programs that fail to meet federal benchmarks.… Continue Reading

On April 24, the Governor of Kansas signed into law Kansas Senate Bill 44, which enacts the Financial Institutions Information Security Act (the “Act”). The Act requires credit services organizations, mortgage companies, supervised lenders, money transmitters, trust companies, and technology-enabled fiduciary financial institutions to comply with the requirements of the GLBA’s Safeguards Rule, as in effect on July 1, 2023.… Continue Reading

Following recent Senate testimony in which OpenAI CEO Sam Altman proposed additional Congressional oversight for the development of artificial intelligence (AI), Colorado Senator Michael Bennet has re-introduced the Digital Platform Commission Act, a bill that would enable the creation of a federal agency to oversee the use of AI by digital platforms. … Continue Reading

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published a Small Entity Compliance Guide (“Guide”) covering the amendments to the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and Regulation B, which implement requirements of Section 1071 of Dodd-Frank. These amendments require that financial institutions compile and report certain data regarding certain business credit applications, as explained in our blog.… Continue Reading

Our discussion looks at the role of in-house and outside counsel in the development and launch of new consumer financial products.  We first discuss the range of issues to be considered as part of the preliminary scoping process, including state licensing, marketing, underwriting, servicing, and collection issues.  We turn next to the process of addressing potential legal obstacles and problems that are identified in scoping, including what consideration should be given to competitors’ approaches and when consultation with regulators should be considered. … Continue Reading

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) received more than 225 public comments to its credit card late fee proposal (the “Proposed Rule”). As we have discussed, the Proposed Rule would make significant changes to the current rules for credit card late fees, including substantially reducing the safe harbor late fee amounts that card issuers can charge and eliminating annual inflation adjustments.… Continue Reading

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) recently issued advisory guidance on the enforcement of time-barred mortgage loans.  A time-barred mortgage loan is one where the statute of limitations has expired.  The statute of limitations for mortgage loans are typically created by state law, and vary by jurisdiction.  In some cases, they create an affirmative defense for the consumer that prohibits a debt collector from suing to collect the debt. … Continue Reading