The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has clarified the priorities and expectations when a designated contract market (DCM) or swap execution facility (SEF) lists new virtual currency derivatives or when a derivatives clearing organization (DCO) clears virtual currency derivatives. Background and Key Terms The CFTC is an independent federal agency that administers the Commodity Exchange Act, which regulates transactions in commodity interests ...
A recent court order in favor of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (or CFTC) and new rules issued by CFTC establish a standard of liability for depository institutions that fail to fulfill their customer funds protection obligations under the Commodity Exchange Act (or CEA) and, thus, requires them in certain circumstances to monitor the activities of clients that are registered with CFTC as futures commission merchants (or FCMs), commonly known as commodity brokers ...
Last Wednesday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that the CFPB's automatic funding structure violates the Constitution. Because the decision calls into question virtually all of the CFPB’s actions since its creation, it has wide-ranging potential implications for all financial services industries. Please join us for a lunch-time webinar as we unpack the Fifth Circuit’s decision and what it means for your business ...
March 31, 2023 By: Michael Flynn and Brett Voets On March 30, 2023, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued the long-awaited final version of its rules on Small Business Lending under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act.[1] The new rule imposes significant burdens and risks on lenders, and will likely result in significant amounts of loan-related data being made public, as discussed below ...
May 26, 2023 By: Stephanie Shea The Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act of 2018 amended TILA to require the CFPB to issue rulemaking addressing Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) loans. Specifically, the Act required the CFPB to apply TILA’s ability-to-repay (ATR) requirements to PACE loans and to apply TILA’s civil liability provisions to a PACE lender’s violation of those ATR requirements ...
On October 7, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) took steps to clarify its interpretation of how settlement service providers may comply with the “no kickback” and “unearned fee” provisions of Section 8 of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) by promulgating a new set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). The FAQs provided several concrete examples to shed light on what activities are allowed under those provisions ...
September 6, 2022 By: Michael Flynn* Continuing a recent trend, the CFPB has asserted that its oversight authority regarding unfair, deceptive, and abusive practices (UDAAP) to assert that certain digital marketers, including what it refers to as “Big Tech,” face potential UDAAP liability and oversight from the CFPB ...
Hear directly from the CFPB about mortgage servicing in the COVID-19 era, including how the leadership transition is affecting the CFPB’s priorities and approach. From a webinar on March 3, Bradley hosted a Q&A session with Allison Brown of the CFPB's Office of Supervision Policy to discuss the CFPB’s supervisory expectations as the industry grapples with CARES implementation and other challenges arising from the coronavirus crisis ...
Join us for a special opportunity to hear directly from the CFPB about mortgage servicing in the COVID-19 era. On October 14 from 2:00-3:00 p.m. ET, Bradley hosted a Q&A session with Allison Brown of the CFPB's Office of Supervision Policy to discuss the CFPB’s supervisory expectations as the industry grapples with CARES implementation and other challenges arising from the coronavirus crisis ...
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) announced today that it would allow financial institutions to provide their privacy notices to consumers online and would no longer require annual distribution of paper copies, provided that the institutions meet certain requirements. Among other things, companies that rely on this new exemption (1) must not share data in ways that would trigger consumers’ opt-out rights (e.g ...
February 8, 2023 By: Michael Flynn On February 1, the CFPB issued a proposed rule to cut the “safe harbor” amount that banks and credit card companies can charge for late fees. If finalized, the proposed rule would reduce the maximum safe harbor limit for credit card late fees to $8. The current safe harbor limits are $30 for a first missed payment and $41 dollars for each additional missed payment, indexed to inflation. The $8 limit would not be indexed to inflation ...
On April 5, 2021, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (the “CFPB”) issued a proposed rule that would, among other things, establish a temporary COVID-19 emergency pre-foreclosure review period until December 31, 2021, for principal residences. Currently, the moratorium on foreclosures and evictions for Federal Housing Administration, US Department of Agriculture, US Department of Veterans Affairs, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac loans has been extended until June 30, 2021 ...
January 10, 2023 By: Michael Flynn The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management and Budget has released the Fall 2022 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions (Agenda) reports on the actions administrative agencies plan to issue in the near and long term. Included is the CFPB’s regulatory agenda for 2023. The CFPB agenda may be found HERE ...
As a part of Federal agencies’ issuance of their semi-annual Spring 2023 Regulatory Agenda, the CFPB has published its Spring 2023 Agency Rule List (“2023 List”). In that List, the CFPB has set forth the status of its present rulemaking activities and its plans for such activities in the next 6 months ...
On August, 18, 2020, the CFPB issued a new proposed rule to create a new category of “seasoned qualified mortgages” (Seasoned QMs) that would receive the safe harbor conclusive presumption of meeting the Ability to Repay standard. The proposed rule would allow certain loans that meet specified criteria and are held in portfolio by the lender for three years to qualify as QMs ...
July 20, 2022 By: Michael Flynn* Amidst its increased activity in many different areas, the CFPB recently focused on credit reporting responsibilities under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) by issuing an advisory opinion. The CFPB highlighted and set out some specific key points regarding credit reporting responsibilities and prohibitions, and offered a reminder about criminal liability under various provisions in the FCRA ...
March 31, 2022 By: Michael Flynn On March 16, 2022, the CFPB announced it will expand the scope of its enforcement activities regarding discrimination beyond the specific areas covered by ECOA, by applying the UDAAP unfair practices standard to discriminatory practices in all consumers financial segments ...
In recent enforcement actions, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) sued four payment processing companies – not for engaging in illegal debt collection – but rather, for ignoring warning signs in processing payments for debt collectors who were engaged in fraudulent debt collection schemes. The CFPB charged the payment processors with violating 12 U.S.C ...
On June 25, 2013, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) issued CFPB Bulletin 2013-06 to announce its "Responsible Business Conduct" policies. The bulletin lays out, in very general terms, suggestions for how companies might curry favor with the Bureau’s Office of Enforcement by engaging in voluntary self-policing, self-reporting, remediation, and cooperation activities. The bulletin is available at [link to http://files.consumerfinance ...
March 31, 2022 By: Michael Flynn In a March 28 speech, CFPB Director Rohit Chopra announced that the CFPB intends to enforce aggressively against large financial institutions that are repeat offenders, and will ask other federal regulators to take a similar approach. This will include utilizing stronger sanctions, even up to banning business practices, forcing divestiture of business lines, and working with state regulatory agencies to obtain license revocations where appropriate ...
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) recently announced a settlement with Dwolla, Inc., an online payment processor, for allegedly deceptive statements Dwolla made to consumers regarding the company’s data security practices. In the settlement, Dwolla agreed to pay a $100,000 penalty and take specific actions to improve its data security ...
