California Attorney General (AG) Rob Bonta, along with a coalition of AGs, has submitted a letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) regarding a proposed final rule. This rule aims to establish a registry of nonbank entities that have been subject to orders related to consumer protection law violations.
A new Connecticut law expands the authority of the state’s attorney general to enforce certain provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the Act).[1]
On August 21, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request by West Virginia Attorney General (AG) Patrick Morrisey and 26 other state AGs to participate in oral arguments in Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) et al. v. Community Financial Services Association of America et al., which concerns whether the CFPB’s statutory authorization violates the Constitution’s Appropriations Clause. Morrissey and 26 other predominantly Republican state AGs have submitted an amicus brief arguing that it does. Morrissey is joined by the AGs for Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming.
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita and the Indiana Department of Financial Institutions announced a settlement in excess of $250,000 with Integrity Acceptance Corp., affiliated companies, and their owners to resolve allegations that they originated personal loans without the required license, contracted for charges in excess of the maximum allowable rate, misrepresented finance charges, and failed to disclose prepaid finance charges in violation of the Indiana Uniform Consumer Credit Code and Indiana Deceptive Consumer Sales Act. As part of the settlement, the entities will forgive $223,685 in loans, pay $33,991 in restitution, and pay $33,000 in civil penalties and costs to the state. The entities and their owners are also enjoined from engaging in similar conduct in the future.
As discussed here, on December 7, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) made a preliminary conclusion that a New York commercial financing law was not preempted by the Truth in Lending Act (TILA). The Bureau indicated it was also considering whether to make a preemption determination regarding similar state laws in California, Utah, and Virginia. On January 20, 2023, California Attorney General Rob Bonta submitted a letter to the CFPB agreeing with its preliminary determination that California’s Commercial Financing Disclosures Law (CFDL) is not preempted by TILA because the CFDL only applies to commercial financing and not to consumer credit transactions within the scope of TILA. Attorney General Bonta further urged the CFPB to “revisit the Federal Reserve Board’s (Board) vague and overbroad articulation of the TILA preemption standard. The CFPB should articulate a narrower standard that emphasizes that preemption should be limited to situations where it is impossible to comply with both TILA and the state law or where the state law stands as an obstacle to the full purposes TILA, which is to provide consumers with full and meaningful disclosure of credit terms in consumer credit transactions.”
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich released opinion No. 22-(R22-011), concluding earned wage access (EWA) products that are fully non-recourse and no-interest are not “consumer lender loans” under Arizona law. Thus, those who make, procure, or advertise EWA products are not required to be licensed as a “consumer lender” by Arizona’s Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions. The AG’s findings apply to EWA providers working with an employer as well as those working directly with an employee.
As discussed here, on October 19, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Community Financial Services Association of America Ltd. (CFSA) v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) held that the CFPB’s funding mechanism violates the appropriations clause because the CFPB does not receive its funding from annual congressional appropriations like most executive agencies, but
Yesterday, 14 Republican attorneys general (AGs) filed an amicus brief in support of a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other co-plaintiffs against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or the Bureau), alleging that the Bureau exceeded its statutory authority by amending its examination manual to include discrimination, and in particular disparate
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently issued a report, focused on the current student loan servicing market that laid out the results of several supervisory efforts related to student lending. Higher education lenders and loan servicers should pay close attention to the report’s findings, which signal the CFPB’s interest in enforcing the Consumer
In response to the Fifth Circuit’s ruling in Community Financial Services Association of America, Ltd. v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFSA) that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) funding mechanism is unconstitutional, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey sent a letter on October 24th to the CFPB, calling its continued operations into question and foreshadowing