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  • CFPB submits brief alleging “forum shopping,” banking groups defend their choice of venue

    Courts

    On March 12, the CFPB submitted a brief to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas in opposition to a motion for preliminary injunction filed by a group of industry associations, urging the court to block the implementation of a new rule that would limit the ability of large credit card issuers to charge late fees (covered by InfoBytes here).

    The CFPB defended the rule by stating that it has considered all relevant factors and that the rule aimed to prevent credit card issuers from charging excessive late fees. The CFPB also argued that the case is not properly situated, as the plaintiffs lack a significant connection to the district in which they filed the lawsuit and do not have the standing to sue on behalf of others, stating “it seems not one large card issuer wants its name on the marquee… [t]he rule applies to only the largest card issuers—approximately 30–35 total entities nationwide. Plaintiffs have not identified a single one that is based in this District.” The CFPB suggested that plaintiffs have engaged in “forum shopping”—i.e., choosing this court because they believe it will be more favorable to their case, despite a lack of substantial connection to the district. The brief stated that the plaintiffs are unlikely to succeed on the merits of their claims under the Administrative Procedure Act because they failed to establish proper venue and associational standing. Additionally, the CFPB argued that an injunction was not warranted because the rule was designed to protect consumers and that preventing its implementation would be against the public interest.

    On March 13, plaintiffs submitted a brief defending its motion for preliminary injunction and their choice of venue in Texas as part of an ongoing suit against the CFPB. The brief stated that according to law, the venue was appropriate if one plaintiff resided in the district, which applied to one of the Texas-based chamber plaintiffs, and if a significant portion of the related events occurred in the district, which is true as the rule impacted the local area. That plaintiff argued they have standing to sue because the issues are relevant to its “mission of cultivating a ‘thriving business climate in the Fort Worth region’” and its trade members included credit card issuers affected by the rule. Despite the CFPB’s counterarguments that the plaintiff lacked standing and that a transactional venue was not applicable, the plaintiff asserted it represented members that would be directly impacted by the rule, fulfilling the requirements for standing. Additionally, plaintiff contended that the rule's effects within the district justify the court's jurisdiction over the case.

    Courts CFPB Consumer Finance Fees Agency Rule-Making & Guidance Litigation

  • Senator Romney et al. pen letter confirming nonbank lending regulations, specifically on the ILC charter

    On March 13, Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) with 11 other senators penned a brief letter to the heads of the FDIC, OCC, and CFPB that supported the FDIC’s regulation of the industrial loan company (ILC) charter but expressed concerns about delay in processing ILC charter applications. According to the letter, ILCs provide “critical access to credit opportunities within the regulated banking sector.” The letter stated the senators “strongly oppose” regulatory actions against lawful ILC charter applications that may further delay FDIC review and decision-making.

    Bank Regulatory Federal Issues ILC FDIC OCC CFPB

  • White House targets “junk fees” in higher education with several new initiatives

    Agency Rule-Making & Guidance

    On March 15, the White House issued a fact sheet on proposed measures aimed at curbing or eliminating alleged “junk fees” in higher education, citing that it found college students incurred “billions in fees” when having to pay for services they may not want. The first action the Biden Administration highlighted was a FY 2025 budget proposal that would eliminate student loan origination fees. The White House found that seven million student loan borrowers pay origination fees somewhere between one and four percent of their student loans. The second item the Biden Administration sought to end was college banking “junk fees,” citing a recent report by the CFPB on this issue (covered by InfoBytes here). To address this issue, the Dept. of Education has proposed a rule on college banking products that cannot include harmful fees. Third, the White House supports another proposed rulemaking from the Dept. of Education that would end automatic billing on tuition for textbooks, allowing students to shop around for better prices. Last, the Dept. of Education is considering a rulemaking that would stop colleges from pocketing leftover meal plan “dollars,” and instead will return the balance to students. The Biden Administration noted these were just a few items meant to help student initiatives, including increasing the transparency of college costs and preventing schools from withholding transcripts. These rules will go into effect on July 1.

    Agency Rule-Making & Guidance Federal Issues Junk Fees White House

  • U.S. SDNY grants partial summary judgment in favor of bank’s FCRA case

    Courts

    Recently, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York opined on a bank’s motion for partial summary judgment, granting the motion as to whether the bank “knowingly” violated the FCRA but denying whether the bank acted “recklessly.” The complaint originated when the individual plaintiff opened a credit card and the plaintiff, along with other cardholders, was enrolled in a disaster relief program (DRP) that provided short-term relief for customers negatively impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. The plaintiff alleged that the bank reported an outstanding account balance to the credit bureaus as delinquent despite promising that the balance would not be reported due to the protections of the DRP. Upon discovering this, the plaintiff disputed the reporting with the bank. The bank then investigated the plaintiff’s payment history, concluding that there had been no error because there was in fact an outstanding delinquent balance. The plaintiff eventually filed complaints with the CFPB in 2022 and proceeded to file suit later that year.

    The plaintiff alleged that the Bank failed to conduct a reasonable investigation by limiting the investigation to the plaintiff’s payment history, and by failing to consider whether the delinquent balance should have been reported due to the protections of the DRP. The court found that a reasonable jury could determine the bank recklessly reported the outstanding account balance to the credit bureaus without performing a reasonable investigation, and thus denied summary judgment. The court noted that the bank’s investigation relied on automated computer programs as to some items, and a manual review that was limited to the account history as to other items. 

    The bank argued it did not “knowingly” violate the FCRA. The court agreed and found the bank could not be “consciously aware” that a violation would come about as a result of its investigation, concluding the bank is entitled to summary judgment on whether it “knowingly” violated § 1681s-2(b) of FCRA. 

    Courts SDNY FCRA Covid-19 CFPB

  • Senator Warren invites student loan servicer to testify before Congress

    Federal Issues

    On March 18, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) sent a letter to a large student loan servicer, inviting its executives to testify at an upcoming hearing hosted by the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Policy on April 10. The hearing will focus on the servicer’s performance, student loan borrowers’ experience with return to repayment, and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. The letter alleged the servicer “mishandl[ed]” borrowers return to repayment after the pandemic by impeding public servants’ access to PSLF relief, among other things. Senator Warren also alleged the servicer failed to perform “basic servicing functions” for PSLF borrowers which led to a backlog of public service workers’ forms eligible towards receiving credit on their student debts. The letter further alleged the servicer implemented a “call deflection scheme” to redirect borrowers' calls from customer service representatives. Testifying would give the servicer the chance to provide context to the allegations, Warren said.

    Federal Issues Congress Testimony Student Loan Servicer Consumer Finance Consumer Protection

  • District Court finds SEC acted in bad faith and orders it to pay defendant’s attorney fees partially

    Courts

    On March 18, the U.S. District Court in Utah ordered the SEC to pay a defendant’s attorney fees and legal costs partially after the Commission was found to have engaged in “gross abuse” and acted in bad faith on how it presented evidence as part of a temporary restraining order (TRO). Additionally, the court denied the SEC’s motion to dismiss the case without prejudice.

    The SEC had filed suit against the defendant, a cryptocurrency company, for allegedly making false and misleading statements to investors, specifically how the company wished to move its assets to the United Arab Emirates in an online video to purportedly “evade law enforcement.” The court had agreed with the SEC and eventually froze the defendant’s assets. In reply, the defendants contended the SEC’s representations were “highly misleading” as they were in response to a viewer’s question posed in a comment as weighing the benefits of operating in the UAE compared to a U.S. regulatory environment. Despite the SEC “affirmatively and repeatedly” asserting that the defendants were moving funds and assets overseas, the court found no evidence to support that claim and had decided to grant the SEC a TRO because of these misrepresentations.

    The court emphasized that it does not take its authority to issue TROs lightly, since this authority invokes extreme powers of the federal judiciary. The court now found the SEC made false statements, and despite having multiple opportunities to correct them, proceeded to make additional “layers of false statements” demonstrating “subjective bad faith.”

    The court refused to write these issues off as mistakes. In its reply, the SEC stated that its attorneys made inaccurate statements, failed to correct them, and improperly labeled an inference as fact. The court acknowledged that the SEC’s attorneys “fell short” of the responsibility entrusted to it by Congress. On reply, the Commission “deeply regrets” its errors but argued it does not deserve any sanctions since it had not engaged in any “bad faith conduct.” The court disagreed, noting “companies were seized, assets were frozen, and lives were upended.”

    Further, the SEC argued that sovereign immunity barred it from any monetary sanctions; the court disagreed. The court admonished the SEC: “[W]hen an attorney makes a false statement of material fact to a court, the lawyer is required to correct it.” The court found the SEC’s explanations unsatisfactory. It also denied the SEC’s motion to dismiss without prejudice. The court sided with the defendants eventually after they asserted the SEC sought to “evade” the court’s oversight. While weighing the decision to impose a greater sanction, the court decided against imposing fees and costs for the entire court case, but directed the Defendants to submit a fee request, if they would like. In all, the court found with “clear evidence” there was a “complete lack of color and an improper purpose on the part of the government.”

    Courts Securities Exchange Commission Attorney Fees

  • Trusts are covered persons subject to the CFPA, 3rd Circuit upholds CFPB FDCPA case

    Courts

    On March 19, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit filed an opinion remanding a case between the CFPB and defendant statutory trusts to the District Court. After issuing a civil investigative demand in 2014, the CFPB initiated an enforcement action in September 2017 against a collection of 15 Delaware statutory trusts that furnished over 800,000 private loans and their debt collector for, among other things, allegedly filing lawsuits against consumers for private student loan debt that they could not prove was owed or was outside the applicable statute of limitations (covered by InfoBytes here). Then, early last year, the parties settled and asked the court to enter a consent judgment, which was denied (covered by InfoBytes here).

    The 3rd Circuit addressed two questions: (i) whether the trusts are covered persons subject to the CFPA; and (ii) whether the CFPB was required to ratify the underlying action that questioned a constitutional deficiency within the Bureau. On the statutory issue, the court found that the trusts fell within the purview of the CFPA because trusts “engage” in offering or providing a consumer financial product or service, specifically student loan servicing and debt collection, as explicitly stated in the trust agreements each trust entered. Regarding the constitutional question, the defendants argued that the Bureau needed to ratify the underlying suit because it was initiated while the agency head was improperly insulated, and since the Bureau ratified it after the statute of limitations had run, the suit was untimely. The court disagreed and found that the defendants’ analysis of the here-and-now injury “doesn’t go far enough,” therefore the CFPB did not need to ratify this action before the statute of limitations had run because the impermissible insulation provision does not, on its own, cause harm.  

    Courts Federal Issues CFPB Third Circuit FDCPA Student Lending Debt Collection Enforcement Consumer Finance CFPA

  • Virginia enacts HB 880, provides protections from lien enforcement against primary residences

    State Issues

    On March 8, the Governor of Virginia signed HB 880 (the “Act”), which will prohibit enforcement of a lien against real estate if the real estate is the judgment debtor’s primary residence and the amount of the lien does not exceed $25,000. Additionally, if the lien will arise from fees charged by a common interest community association (under certain chapters of Virginia law), the Act will prohibit court action to enforce the lien, given the sum of all judgments, (excluding interest and costs), is $5,000 or less. The Act will also impose recordkeeping requirements for such common interest community associations, specifically, (i) to maintain individual assessment account records; and (ii) to maintain records of any recorded lien during its effective duration. The Act will go into effect on July 1.

    State Issues Virginia State Legislation

  • Indiana enacts SB 220 on cyber incident notification guidelines

    State Issues

    On March 11, the Governor of Indiana signed SB 220 (the “Act”) which will add cyber incident notification guidelines for financial institutions. The Act defined the term "corporation" as the following entities organized in Indiana, including a (i) bank; (ii) trust company; (iii) corporate fiduciary; (iv) savings bank; (v) savings association; (vi) industrial loan and investment company with federal deposit insurance; (vii) credit union; and (viii) bank of discount and deposit.

    According to the Act, a corporation will be required to inform the director of the department about a reportable cyber incident or notification incident following the same protocol mandated by the corporation's federal regulatory body or deposit insurance provider. If a corporation does not have a federal regulatory body or deposit insurance provider, it must report the cyber incident to the director of the department using the procedures outlined in U.S.C. 12 CFR 748.1(c), which despite typically applying to federally insured credit unions, will also apply to corporations. The Act will go into effect on July 1. 

    State Issues State Legislation Privacy, Cyber Risk & Data Security Disclosures Indiana

  • Utah amends provisions on notifications and definitions of commercial financing transactions

    State Issues

    On March 13, the Governor of Utah signed into law SB 25, a bill that amended certain provisions related to commercial financing transactions, specifically repealing provisions related to disclosing commercial financing transactions and adding the requirement that a party subject to the notification requirement must submit evidence of registration with the NMLS. The bill also amended Section 7-27-101 of the Laws of Utah, to update the definition of the term “broker” and separate it from the term “provider.” Under Section 7-27-202, the bill removed certain disclosures for commercial financing transactions, including disclosures previously required for open-end credit plans after disbursing funds. Additionally, under Section 70C-1-302, the bill updated two more defined terms: “Commissioner” and “Nationwide database.” Lastly, under Section 70C-8-202, the bill amended certain notification requirements, specifically indicating the party shall file a notification via the NMLS, and such notification will be required annually on or before December 31. The bill will go into effect on May 1. 

    State Issues State Legislation Utah Commercial Finance NMLS

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