The U.S. Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”) has released a Request for Information on the Uses, Opportunities, and Risks of Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) in the Financial Services Sector (“RFI”).  Written comments are due by August 12, 2024. 

AI is a broad topic and the term is sometimes used indiscriminately; as the RFI suggests, most AI systems being used or contemplated in the financial services sector involve machine learning, which is a subset of AI. … Continue Reading

The Treasury Department has released a report entitled “Assessing the Impact of New Entrant Non-bank Firms on Competition in Consumer Finance Markets.”  The report was issued in response to President Biden’s July 2021 Executive Order on promoting competition.  That Order directed the Secretary of the Treasury to issue a report assessing how the entry of large technology firms and other non-banks into consumer finance markets has affected competition.… Continue Reading

A key issue for earned wage access (EWA) programs is whether they constitute “credit” for purposes of federal consumer financial protection laws such as TILA, ECOA, and the CFPA, or under state law.  The Treasury Department’s General Explanations of the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2023 Revenue Proposals includes a proposal concerning how EWA programs should be characterized for tax purposes.… Continue Reading

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s recent report evaluating economic opportunities presented by nonbank financial institution and fintech company innovations includes a detailed account of current data aggregation activities in the financial services marketplace and provides policy recommendations that shed light on the federal government’s current views on data aggregation. (See our legal alert and blog posts (here and here) for a discussion of other portions of the Treasury’s report.) … Continue Reading

A portion of the Treasury’s report entitled “A Financial System That Creates Economic Opportunities, Nonbank Financials, Fintech, and Innovation” focuses on the mortgage industry.  A detailed discussion of the Treasury’s mortgage-related findings and recommendations is available here.

We have previously blogged about the portion of the Treasury report that focuses on payments and have published a legal alert that discusses other portions of the report.… Continue Reading

A portion of the Treasury’s report entitled “A Financial System That Creates Economic Opportunities, Nonbank Financials, Fintech, and Innovation,” focuses on payments.  (See our legal alert for a discussion of other portions of the Treasury’s report.)

Current payment methods.  The report notes four primary core payment systems: credit cards, debit cards, automated clearing house (ACH) transfers, and wire transfers. … Continue Reading

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has issued a memorandum in which it makes recommendations to modernize the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA).  The memorandum was directed to the primary CRA regulators, consisting of the OCC, the Federal Reserve, and the FDIC.

In preparing the memo, Treasury obtained input from the primary CRA regulators and close to 100 stakeholders representing community and consumer advocates, academics and think tanks, financial institutions, trade associations, and law firms, among others. … Continue Reading

Appearing before the House Financial Services Committee yesterday at a hearing entitled “The Annual Report of the Financial Stability Oversight Council”  (FSOC), Treasury Secretary Mnuchin indicated that he intends to discuss the CFPB’s handling of its investigation of Equifax’s massive 2017 data breach with the FSOC.

We blogged yesterday about Reuters’ report that that the CFPB’s investigation has sputtered since it was authorized by former CFPB Director Cordray shortly after Equifax revealed the data breach. … Continue Reading

In a scathing report released today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury concludes that the CFPB’s final arbitration rule “failed to meaningfully evaluate whether prohibiting mandatory arbitration clauses in consumer financial contracts would serve either consumer protection or the public interest — its two statutory mandates.”  Moreover, according to the report, the arbitration rule will impose “extraordinary” economic costs on businesses and consumers by generating a “massive” increase in class action litigation that will not benefit consumers but will effect a “large wealth transfer” to their lawyers.… Continue Reading

The U.S. Treasury Department recently issued a report titled “A Financial System That Creates Economic Opportunities-Banks and Credit Unions.”  In addition to recommended changes for the CFPB, the report devotes substantial attention to the residential mortgage industry.

The report cites the size of the housing market, contributing approximately 18% to U.S.… Continue Reading