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Financial Services Law Insights and Observations

Remittance provider hints it may challenge CFPB’s funding structure

Courts CFPB State Issues State Attorney General New York Consumer Finance Enforcement CFPA Remittance Rule Repeat Offender Regulation E

Courts

On May 20, a global payments provider, which was recently sued by the New York attorney general and the CFPB, filed a pre-motion letter hinting that it will challenge the constitutionality of the Bureau’s funding structure. As previously covered by InfoBytes, the complaint claimed the “repeat offender” defendant allegedly violated numerous federal and state consumer financial protection laws in its handling of remittance transfers. Earlier in the month, the defendant called the allegations “false, inflammatory and misleading,” and took issue with the Bureau’s suggestion that it had “uncovered widespread and systemic issues involving ‘substantial’ consumer harm.” According to the defendant, “data from the CFPB’s own consumer complaint portal strongly suggest otherwise.” (Covered by InfoBytes here.)

The defendant raised several arguments, including that the “CFPB’s funding structure also violates the Appropriations Clause, requiring dismissal”—a nod to a recent en banc decision issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (covered by InfoBytes here), in which several dissenting judges argued that the case should be dismissed because the agency’s funding structure violates the Constitution’s separation of powers and “is doubly removed from congressional review.” The defendant’s pre-motion letter also argued that the Bureau’s complaint should be moved to the Northern District of Texas where the company is headquartered and where the Bureau’s examinations were conducted.

In response, the Bureau and New York AG filed their own letter responding to the defendant’s proposed grounds for dismissal, countering, among other things, that the case is “adequately pled,” the claims are timely, and that the Bureau’s funding structure is constitutional. Challenging the defendant’s contention that the Bureau’s statutory method of funding violates the Constitution’s appropriations clause, the letter stressed that the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit have held that this clause “simply requires that federal spending be authorized by statute,” adding that “[b]oth the Bureau’s receipt of funds and its use of those funds are so authorized.”