On July 17, Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu delivered prepared remarks before the Exchequer Club entitled “Size, Complexity, and Polarization in Banking.”

These were his first public remarks about the Supreme Court’s recent opinion in Cantero v. Bank of America. In that case, the Court reversed a Second Circuit opinion which had held that because of preemption a national bank need not comply with a New York law which requires the payment of 2% interest on residential mortgage escrow accounts.… Continue Reading

The CFPB recently filed two amicus briefs, one in a First Circuit case involving the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and the other, which was filed jointly with the Federal Trade Commission, in a Fourth Circuit case involving the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).

FDCPA.  The FDCPA case is Carrasquillo v.Continue Reading

The CFPB announced last week that it has entered into a consent order with Commonwealth Financial Systems, Inc. (Commonwealth), a third-party debt collection company that collects past-due medical debts and furnishes information about consumers to consumer reporting agencies (CRAs), to resolve Commonwealth’s alleged violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). … Continue Reading

A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently held that because of the timing of a filing in a collection action against a student loan borrower, his claim that debt collectors violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) was not time-barred, reversing the lower court’s dismissal. … Continue Reading

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has ruled that a plaintiff in a putative class action had standing to assert FDCPA claims against the purchaser of her debt and the purchaser’s servicer based on the $3.95 she paid in postage to respond to a second validation letter after she had already responded to the first validation notice.… Continue Reading

On March 30, 2023, a three-judge panel of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania held in a precedential opinion that debt collectors can send collection letters to debtors after the expiration of the statute of limitations without violating federal or Pennsylvania law, so long as the debt collector does not file suit in court.… Continue Reading

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit recently joined the Eleventh Circuit (and a growing majority of courts) in rejecting the “Hunstein theory” of liability under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA).  In Shields v. Professional Bureau of Collections of Maryland, Inc., the Tenth Circuit affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of FDCPA claims for lack of standing, confirming that a debt collector’s use of an outside mail vendor does not constitute an actionable, concrete injury.… Continue Reading

In an unpublished opinion, a New Jersey federal district court has ruled that a plaintiff did not have Article III standing to assert a claim under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act based solely on her receipt of an allegedly misleading collection letter.

In Valentine v Unifund CCR, LLC; Distressed Asset Portfolio III, et al.Continue Reading

It’s official!  We have our first-ever federal court opinion evaluating the requirements of Regulation F!  Okay, maybe “evaluating” isn’t the right word.  “Reading Regulation F out loud” is more like it.

  • The Question: Does Regulation F require debt collectors to use the CFPB’s model validation notice (“MVN”) to comply with the FDCPA?
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Some people just don’t like change. New developments are often opposed by small groups prioritizing their own self-interest over the interests of the community at large. In real estate, these groups are sometimes known as “NIMBYs,” short for their rallying cry: “Not in My Backyard!” Well, it looks like debt collectors may have some NIMBYs of their own.… Continue Reading