The California legislature was active in 2018, enacting several new requirements and provisions applicable to the financial services industry. Those requirements include an important and comprehensive privacy regime (the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, or CCPA), which establishes new protections for personal information that covered commercial enterprises collect. The CCPA becomes effective January 1, 2020, with implementing regulations due July 1, 2020.

However, many new California provisions become effective on January 1, 2019, including new foreclosure protections (and the reinstatement of certain protections from the California Homeowner Bill of Rights) and the exclusion of reverse mortgage loans from certain successor-in-interest protections. A new requirement to provide mortgage loan modification disclosures in the language in which they are negotiated (e.g., in Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, or Korean) becomes effective for covered entities once the regulator develops those disclosures.

California also imposed new restrictions and requirements applicable to debt collectors and a new licensing obligation for servicers of student loans, and expanded certain financial protections for servicemembers.

Read more about California’s active legislature in Mayer Brown’s recent Legal Update.