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CFPB and lenders file briefs for 2017 payday lending case

Courts CFPB Payday Rule Payday Lending Administrative Procedures Act

Courts

On August 6, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas received briefs from the CFPB and the two trade groups (plaintiffs) challenging the CFPB’s 2017 final payday/auto title/high-rate installment loan rule (2017 Rule) regarding a compliance date for the 2017 Rule’s payment provisions. The briefs were filed in response to the court’s July 29 order requesting briefing “concerning what would be the appropriate compliance date if the court were to deny Plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment and grant Defendants’ motion for summary judgment.” As previously covered by InfoBytes, in August 2020, the plaintiffs asked the court to set aside the 2017 Rule and the Bureau’s ratification of the payment provisions of the 2017 Rule as unconstitutional and in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act (APA). Earlier in July 2020, the Bureau issued a final rule revoking the 2017 Rule’s underwriting provisions and ratified the 2017 Rule’s payment provisions (covered by InfoBytes here) in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Seila Law LLC v CPFB (covered by a Buckley Special Alert, holding that the director’s for-cause removal provision was unconstitutional but was severable from the statute establishing the Bureau). 

According to the CFPB’s brief, the stay of the compliance date should remain in place for no longer than 30 days after the Court’s decision on summary judgment. The CFPB argued, among other things, that a 30-day delay is consistent with the APA and should provide sufficient time to make any final preparations. In addition, the CFPB argued that complying with the payment provisions is not considered “onerous” because the provisions generally prohibit lenders from withdrawing payments for a covered loan from a borrower’s account after two consecutive attempts have failed due to lack of sufficient funds and because the provisions require lenders to give consumers certain notices, specifically before attempting to withdraw a payment for the first time and before making an “unusual” withdrawal attempt. In addition, the CFPB argued that “[f]urther extension of the stay is particularly unwarranted because the only basis for the stay disappeared over a year ago.”

According to the plaintiffs’ brief, an “order lifting the stay…should set the compliance date no earlier than 445 days (or, at a minimum, 286 days) from the date the court lifts the stay, reflecting the time left for compliance when the stay was sought (or entered).” In addition to arguing that requiring immediate compliance would violate the APA, the plaintiffs argued, among other things, that “the 2017 Rule gave lenders twenty-one months before compliance would be required, which the Bureau viewed as necessary to give lenders ‘enough time for an orderly implementation period’ and to ‘reasonably adjust their practices to come into compliance.’” Moreover, the plaintiffs argued that the Bureau will need to set a new compliance date via notice-and-comment rulemaking if the stay did not toll the compliance period.

Responses from both parties are due by August 16.