Enforcement

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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

Mayer Brown serves as a trusted advisor to our clients in the consumer financial services industry, a role that we cherish and constantly strive to improve.

In this report, we provide a snapshot of our 2024 consumer financial services representative engagements and how we helped industry participants navigate the terrain. It also provides links to…

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

What constitutes a “reasonable” ability-to-repay determination when making a mortgage loan? Since the CFPB’s Ability-to-Repay rules became effective in 2014, the clearest answer to that question is that making a qualified mortgage (“QM”) complies (or is presumed to comply) with those rules. However, mortgage lenders serving the non-QM market have few specifications for how they…

The US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is giving no-action letters a second chance. On January 8, 2025, the CFPB issued a policy statement setting forth new procedures for companies to request supervisory and enforcement relief through no-action letters. The policy statement was issued at the same time as a related policy statement setting forth procedures…

On February 7, 2024, the US Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on certain US residential real estate transactions (“2024 NPRM”). The 2024 NPRM would require certain professionals involved in real estate closings and settlements to report information to FinCEN about non-financed transfers of residential real…

Cyber threats to the financial services industry continue to increase. At the same time, regulatory requirements, litigation risk, contractual requirements and regulator expectations continue to grow. Please join us for a half-day Cybersecurity Awareness Month program that will highlight key recent cyber legal developments and tools that financial services companies can use to mitigate associated…

It has been more than five years since the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) has issued a consent order based on alleged violations of Section 8 of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (“RESPA”).  On August 17, 2023, the CFPB announced a consent order with a non-bank mortgage lender and a consent order with a real estate brokerage company—totaling nearly $2 million in combined penalties—based on allegations that the mortgage company provided things of value and the real estate brokerage company received things of value in violation of Section 8 of RESPA.  Perhaps it should come as no surprise that the activities at issue in the consent orders are promotional events and marketing services agreements, two arrangements about which the CFPB provided guidance in its Frequently Asked Questions in October 2020. Continue Reading RESPA Enforcement is Back! The CFPB Takes Aim at Marketing and Promotional Activities