Tori K. Shinohara

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In an unprecedented move, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (“CFPB” or “Bureau”) Acting Director is seeking to vacate the Bureau’s settlement with Townstone Financial (“Townstone” or the “Company”), which was entered by the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on November 7, 2024. In a press release, Acting Director Vought stated that the CFPB “abused its power, used radical ‘equity’ arguments to tag Townstone as a racist with zero evidence . . . to further the goal of DEI in lending via their regulation by enforcement tactics.”Continue Reading CFPB Seeks to Vacate Townstone Redlining Settlement

Earlier today the Trump administration’s nominee to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB” or “Bureau”), Jonathan McKernan, testified before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.  McKernan was most recently a member of the Board of Directors of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and has also worked in private practice, in Congress, and at the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

During the hearing, news broke that the CFPB had moved to dismiss a number of pending lawsuits with prejudice.  Dismissing a case with prejudice is significant because it essentially prohibits the Bureau from filing the same claims against the defendant in the future.  These developments follow other moves the agency made to reverse prior actions, including filing a motion to withdraw an amicus brief it submitted in a lawsuit shortly before Trump’s inauguration.Continue Reading McKernan Testifies before Senate Committee amidst Rollback of CFPB Actions

On Friday, the Trump administration installed Russell Vought, the recently-confirmed head of the Office of Management and Budget, as the new acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB” or “Bureau”).  Vought replaced Scott Bessent who served as the acting director of the Bureau for less than a week.  Vought quickly issued a notice directing staff to pause all agency activity.  The directive goes further than the similar directive issued by former Acting Director Bessent and notably instructs staff to “cease all supervision and examination activity” and to “cease any pending investigations.”  Significantly, it has been reported that today Vought instructed Bureau staff to “not perform any work tasks” at all. It has also been reported that the Bureau’s DC headquarters will be closed from February 10 through the 14th.Continue Reading New Acting Director Installed at the CFPB

As we reported earlier this week, the CFPB’s new Acting Director and Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, has directed Bureau employees not to make any filings or appearances in litigation, other than to seek a pause in the proceedings. This directive played out almost immediately this week—including in a case before the Fifth Circuit brought by…

Yesterday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB” or “Bureau”) announced that Scott Bessent, the recently confirmed Treasury secretary, is now the acting director of the Bureau. The announcement comes after the Trump administration fired former Director Rohit Chopra over the weekend. 

Unlike the prior transition to a Trump administration, when then-Director Richard Cordray stayed on through most of the first year of President Trump’s term, the industry expected Director Chopra to be removed immediately due to a 2020 Supreme Court decision that held that the CFPB director may be removed at will by the President. President Biden removed Trump’s Senate-confirmed CFPB director, Kathy Kraninger, using that authority. However, Director Chopra continued to hold his job for almost two weeks after the inauguration. In our view, this delay was expected as the administration had to wait to remove Director Chopra until it had a Senate-confirmed individual who could be appointed to serve as the acting director under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act. The Trump administration presumably did not want to remove Director Chopra only to have one of his deputies serve as the acting director as the goal of installing Secretary Bessent as the acting director is to quickly shift the priorities of the Bureau.Continue Reading Acting Director Installed at CFPB: What to Expect in the Months Ahead

Members of Mayer Brown’s Financial Services team summarize the main takeaways of the CFPB’s proposal to amend the Regulation X mortgage servicing rules, focusing on the proposal to amend the requirements for mortgage servicers to assist borrowers in default who seek payment assistance, the proposed amendments to foreclosure safeguards during that process, and the CFPB’s…

On March 29, 2024, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting enforcement of the new Community Reinvestment Act (“CRA”) regulations against the plaintiffs in the case.

The CRA, passed in 1977, generally requires insured depository institutions to participate in investment, lending, and service activities that help…

On February 23, 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau published an order establishing supervisory authority over a small-loan consumer finance company, using a Dodd-Frank Act provision that allows the Bureau to supervise certain nonbanks that it has reasonable cause to determine pose risks to consumers.

In Mayer Brown’s Legal Update, we summarize relevant aspects…

The New York Department of Financial Services finalized guidance on how banks and mortgage institutions should manage climate-related financial and operational risks. The agency’s guidance creates extensive obligations for New York institutions, particularly mortgage lenders and servicers for which those risk management expectations may be new. Also, the NYDFS emphasizes that those institutions must still…

The CFPB’s 1071 Rule is on hold.  On October 26, 2023, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas issued a nationwide injunction that enjoins the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) from implementing and enforcing its small business lending data collection rule (the “1071 Rule”).  The injunction stems from a lawsuit filed…