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Pennsylvania has one of the most active Attorney General offices when it comes to bringing cases against financial companies. This is due to the office’s Consumer Financial Protection Unit, which was formed by Attorney General Josh Shapiro in 2017 because of the expectation that the CFPB would become less potent in protecting consumers. The Unit…

The New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) issued a press release yesterday to announce that it is leading a multistate investigation into the payroll advance industry.  A payroll advance allows an employee to access wages that he or she has earned before the payroll date on which such wages are to be paid by…

A new (and perhaps final) chapter was added to the tale of ITT Educational Services, Inc. last week with the CFPB’s announcement that it had settled the lawsuit it filed against Student CU Connect CUSO, LLC (CU Connect), a special purpose entity company set up to fund, purchase, manage, and hold private student loans (CU…

RD Legal Funding has filed its opening brief in the Second Circuit, where the CFPB and New York Attorney General filed appeals from the district court’s decision and RD Legal Funding filed a cross-appeal.  The CFPB and the NYAG filed their opening briefs in March.

RD Legal Funding purchased at a discount, for immediate cash…

The California Department of Business Oversight (DBO) has filed an administrative enforcement action against a title lender for alleged violations of California law and launched an investigation into whether the interest rates charged by the lender are unconscionable.

According to the DBO’s Accusation, the lender is licensed under the California Financing Law (CFL).  The…

The New York Department of Financial Services has filed a memorandum of law opposing the OCC’s motion to dismiss the NYDFS’s second lawsuit seeking to block the OCC’s issuance of special purpose national bank (SPNB) charters to fintech companies.

In its motion to dismiss, the OCC argued that the court lacks subject matter jurisdiction…

The CFPB and New York Attorney General have filed their opening briefs in their appeals to the Second Circuit in RD Legal Funding.  The CFPB filed an appeal from Judge Preska’s June 21, 2018 decision, as amended by her September 12 order, in which she ruled that the CFPB’s single-director-removable-only-for-cause structure is unconstitutional, struck…

Earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Timbs v. Indiana that the prohibition on excessive fines in the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is incorporated against the States by the Fourteenth Amendment.  Although it involved a civil asset forfeiture of a vehicle arising from the petitioner’s criminal conviction, the decision could provide…

With the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Unit as one of his early actions, Pennsylvania  Attorney General Josh Shapiro made clear his intention to pursue an aggressive pro-consumer agenda.  Mr. Shapiro named Nicholas Smyth, a former CFPB enforcement attorney, to serve as Assistant Director of the Attorney General’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

In what…

On January 23, Delaware Governor John Carney signed the “Delaware Federal Employees Civil Relief Act” into law.  The Act states that its purpose “is to provide for the temporary suspension of judicial and administrative proceedings in Delaware that may adversely affect the civil rights of Federal workers during a shutdown.”  The Act provides…