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On January 5, 2021, the Attorneys General of New York, California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, and North Carolina filed a voluminous Complaint in federal district court for the Southern District of New York against the OCC and Acting Comptroller of the Currency Brian Brooks, seeking to set aside the final…

On Monday and Tuesday, PLI held its two-day 25th Annual Consumer Financial Services Institute, which I co-chaired.  During the morning session of the first day, I co-moderated two consecutive panel discussions titled “Federal Regulators Speak,” with the first panel featuring CFPB and FTC representatives and the second panel featuring OCC and FDIC representatives.  The FDIC…

After reviewing the legal foundation for federal preemption of state law limits on interest, we discuss the OCC’s proposed approach for determining when a bank is the “true lender” in programs with non-bank agents, our arguments in support of the proposal made in our comment letter to the OCC, key arguments made in support…

We recently published a blog about the OCC’s proposed rule “National Banks and Federal Savings Associations as Lenders” (the “Proposed Rule”), which would clarify that a bank (or savings association) is properly regarded as the “true lender” when, as of the date of origination, it is named as the lender in a loan agreement or…

On September 3, 2020, the California Department of Business Oversight (DBO) announced that it has launched a formal investigation into whether Wheels Financial Group, LLC d/b/a LoanMart, formerly one of California’s largest state-licensed auto title lenders, “is evading California’s newly-enacted interest rate caps through its recent partnership with an out-of-state bank.”  Coupled with the California…

Ballard Spahr LLP has submitted a comment letter to the OCC in support of its proposed rule, “National Banks and Federal Savings Associations as Lenders” (the “Proposed Rule”). As detailed in our letter, we applaud the Proposed Rule, which would establish a clear and logical bright line confirming and clarifying that a bank (or…

We have previously blogged about the lawsuits filed by the Colorado Attorney General against fintechs Avant and Marlette Funding and their partner banks WebBank and Cross River Bank.   These lawsuits challenged on Madden and “true lender” grounds the interest rates charged under the defendants’ loan programs. The AG has now settled with the defendants and…

In an order issued August 12, 2020, the United States District Court for the District of Colorado relied on the OCC’s “Madden fix” rule  to hold that, under Section 27 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act, 12 U.S.C. § 1831d, a promissory note with an interest rate that was valid when made remains valid…

Less than two months after issuing its final “Madden fix” rule, the OCC has now issued a proposed rule to address when a national bank or federal savings association should be considered the “true lender” in the context of a third party relationship.  Comments on the proposal, which was published in today’s Federal …