On January 20, the Ninth Circuit handed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) a victory in one of the first cases challenging the CFPB’s investigative authority — although that victory seems tied to the particular facts of the case.

The court held that the CFPB has the authority to investigate the activities of for-profit, small-dollar lenders created by three Indian tribes (the Tribal Lending Entities). Given the unique facts of the case, however, the decision may provide scant guidance for the other pending cases challenging the CFPB’s authority to issue administrative subpoenas known as Civil Investigative Demands (CIDs).

The case before the Ninth Circuit involved CIDs issued to the Tribal Lending Entities as part of an investigation into whether small-dollar online lenders were violating federal consumer financial laws. Unlike the other pending challenges to the CFPB’s investigative authority, the Tribal Lending Entities did not claim that the nature of their activities (lending money) was outside the scope of the CFPB’s authority. Instead, they argued that the CFPB’s investigative powers – which are limited to sending CIDs to “persons” – did not authorize the agency to send such demands to tribal entities. The Ninth Circuit disagreed.
Continue Reading Ninth Circuit Affirms CFPB Authority to Investigate Tribal Lenders

New regulations under the federal Military Lending Act (“MLA”) that become effective next week will prohibit consumer loans to covered US Service members if those loans have a “military annual percentage rate” (“MAPR”) greater than 36 percent. The Defense Department’s regulations will impose that MAPR limit on additional types of consumer credit transactions (beyond just

A federal district court in California handed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) a big win on Wednesday, August 31, 2016, granting the agency summary judgment on liability in its lawsuit against CashCall, Inc., its affiliated entities and its owner. In a 16-page decision and order, the US District Court for the Central District

On June 2, 2016, the CFPB proposed new ability-to-repay and payment processing requirements for short-term and certain longer-term consumer loans.  Relying largely on the CFPB’s authority to prohibit unfair or abusive practices, the proposal would generally require that lenders making payday, vehicle title, and certain high-rate installment loans either originate loans satisfying strict product characteristic limitations set by the rule or make an ability-to-repay determination based on verified income and other information.

To facilitate the ability-to-repay determination, the CFPB is also proposing to establish special “registered information systems” to which lenders would have to report information about these loans.  In addition, servicers would have to obtain new payment authorizations from consumers after making two consecutive unsuccessful attempts at extracting payment from consumer accounts, and would be subject to new disclosure requirements related to payment processing.
Continue Reading CFPB Proposes Underwriting and Payment Processing Requirements for Payday, Title, and High-Rate Installment Loans