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New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has nominated Linda Lacewell to become Superintendent of the state’s Department of Financial Services.  Ms. Lacewell would replace Maria Vullo who announced last month that she will leave DFS on February 1.

Ms. Lacewell most recently served as Governor Cuomo’s Chief of Staff.  She previously served as executive director of a cancer foundation initiative in California and as Governor Cuomo’s Chief Risk Officer. … Continue Reading

Maria Vullo, the current Superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services, has announced that she will leave DFS on February 1, 2019.

Ms. Vullo, who has served as Superintendent since 2016, has been an aggressive regulator.  In September 2018, she made a public announcement stating that the DFS intended to pursue what appeared to be a disparate impact theory arising out of indirect auto finance transactions. … Continue Reading

New York has enacted legislation that requires creditors to provide new disclosures when using devices to remotely disable vehicles, commonly referred to as “kill switches.”  The new law took effect immediately upon its signing by Governor Cuomo on October 2, 2018.

First, the law amended New York’s Uniform Commercial Code to add a definition for a “payment assurance device.” … Continue Reading

If you’ve followed the status of the CFPB’s enforcement actions under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act related to auto dealer finance charge participation, you probably would have concluded that those cases are unlikely to resurface.  Not only did Congress override the CFPB’s Bulletin describing the underlying legal theory, but then the Bureau’s new leadership made a statement immediately thereafter describing the cases as an “overreach.”… Continue Reading

The New York City Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) has proposed new rules for used car dealers that would require dealers to provide the following disclosures to buyers:

  • A financing disclosure that includes the “sale terms,” “financing terms,” and pricing information for add-on products and services.  The financing terms include three APRs: “the Annual Percentage Rate (APR)” (presumably, the contract APR),  the “lowest APR offered to buyer by any finance company for loan with same term and down payment,” and the “APR offered to buyer by selected finance company”
  • A disclosure of the buyer’s right to cancel

The proposal would also require dealers to conspicuously post a “Used Car Consumer Bill of Rights” in any office or area of the dealer’s location where consumers negotiate and execute sales contracts and maintain an “automobile contract cancellation option report” that must be made available to the DCA upon request.… Continue Reading

The New York Education Department (NYED) has issued a ruling which states that the Bureau of Proprietary School Supervision (BPSS) will not permit an enrollment agreement, including an arbitration clause, to infringe on the Commissioner of Education’s or the NYED’s jurisdiction “to investigate schools and issue findings (whether or not a complaint is filed), to commence disciplinary action, or otherwise to issue any remedy, including with respect to the tuition reimbursement account, provided by the Education Law and the Commissioner’s regulations.” … Continue Reading

Identical bills have been introduced in the New York Assembly (A08938) and Senate (S07294) that would direct the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) to issue a report on online lending by July 1, 2018.

The bills are intended to amend legislation signed into law by New York Governor Cuomo on December 29, 2017 (S6593A) that created a seven-person task force to study online lending and issue a report by April 15, 2018 containing specified information. … Continue Reading

RD Legal Funding, LLC is seeking to dismiss the lawsuit filed against it, two of its affiliates, and their individual principal in February 2017 by the CFPB and the New York Attorney General in a NY federal district court alleging that a litigation settlement advance product offered by the defendants is a disguised usurious loan that is deceptively marketed and abusive. … Continue Reading

The New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) announced last week that it is migrating the administration of its non-mortgage related licenses to the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System (NMLS), joining more than 60 other state financial services regulatory agencies that already administer their non-mortgage licenses via the NMLS.  Effective July 1, new applicants for a money transmitter license will be able to apply via the NMLS, and existing licensees will be able to transition their licenses to the NMLS. … Continue Reading

The CFPB announced that, jointly with the New York Attorney General, it has filed a lawsuit in a New York federal court against three companies that purchased consumer debts and two of the companies’ individual principals alleging that the defendants engaged in a “massive illegal debt-collection scheme.”

The complaint alleges that the defendants’ conduct violated the FDCPA, the UDAAP prohibition of the Consumer Financial Protection Act, and various New York laws, including New York’s debt collection and UDAP laws.  … Continue Reading