Payday Lending

When Congress enacted the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Financial Protection Act in July 2010 amid the wreckage of the 2008 financial crisis, the financial services industry had no shortage of questions about the sweeping implications of the new law. Within a year, October Research, LLC, added a new publication to its portfolio with a mission to answer those questions and called it Dodd Frank Update. We have appreciated the positive feedback from the industry over the years affirming that our coverage in this space is among the most comprehensive available. Read on »

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will distribute $384 million in redress to approximately 191,000 consumers who were deceived by Think Finance, a Texas-based online payday lender that deceived consumers out $133 million. The bankrupt company paid only $7 in civil money penalties when it settled charges brought by the bureau in November 2017. Read on »

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently invoked its “dormant” Dodd-Frank Act authority when it issued its first supervisory designation order to a nonbank installment lender. The notice outlined activities that the bureau determined could pose a risk to consumers. Read on »

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Enforcement Director Eric Halperin highlighted the bureau’s recent achievements and ongoing efforts to protect consumers in the financial industry, during a speech at the National Compliance Law Center’s Consumer Rights Litigation Conference.

The director emphasized the importance of the agency’s mission and the positive impact it has had on the consumer marketplace, despite challenges to the agency’s statutory authority, constitutionality and funding structure.

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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently sued a nonbank, high-cost installment lender and several of its subsidiaries for unlawful loan-churning practices that often targeted older Americans and single-parent wage earners with low or fixed annual incomes.

Although high-cost loan borrowers make up just under 10 percent of the company’s total borrower population, their refinances generate 40 percent of the company’s net revenue.

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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has upheld the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia’s sanctions against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) for failure to comply with a court order requiring the bureau sit for Rule 30(b)(6) depositions. The district judge found the CFPB engaged in misconduct and abuse of the discovery process by refusing to be deposed. Read on for more details. Read on »

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) provided its annual report to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on its enforcement and related activities in 2022 on the Truth in Lending Act, Consumer Leasing Act, and the Electronic Fund Transfer Act. The CFPB, under its authority granted by the Dodd-Frank Act, requests this report from the FTC annually as part of the bureau’s preparation for its annual report to Congress. Read on for more details. Read on »

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered nonbank installment lender OneMain Financial to pay $20 million in redress and penalties for deceptive sales practices and its handling of refunds relating to additional products customers were led to believe were necessary to receive a loan as part of a push for employees to reach sales targets. Read on for more details. Read on »

Data privacy is an ever-evolving area of concern for any industry that handles personal data, and this is especially important for those industries that handle individual’s financial data. Data privacy experts Ryan Cabrita of The Gulotta Grabiner Law Group and Greg Szewczyk of national law firm Ballard Spahr will discuss some of the big up-and-coming topics. Read on for more details. Read on »

The Mortgage Bankers Association, National Association of Realtors, and the National Association of Home Builders filed an amici brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Community Financial Services Association of America which will determine the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s funding structure. Read on for more details. Read on »