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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

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…

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…

On September 8, 2023, a federal court struck down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) attempts to supervise institutions for so-called “unfairness discrimination.” The CFPB had previously announced the view that the statutory prohibition on unfairness encompasses a broad-based prohibition on discrimination in an update to its examination manual in March 2022, eliciting substantial objections…

Please check out the latest edition of our UDAAP Round-Up — a periodic review of federal activities regarding the prohibition on unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices (“UDAAPs”) in the consumer financial services space. In this edition, we cover notable policy, enforcement, and supervisory developments from October 2022 through March 2023

Much has been written about Rohit Chopra’s tenure as Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau). While many expected an aggressive enforcement posture, in part because of an aggressive hiring spree in enforcement, his tenure has been marked more by an aggressive use of guidance and exhortation. Recently released statistics bear this…

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued its latest set of Supervisory Highlights and reminded us that “unforeseen” means “unforeseen.”

The CFPB’s regulations generally prohibit reducing a loan originator’s compensation in selective cases. While lower compensation sounds good for consumers, the CFPB asserts that allowing loan originators to decrease their compensation in selective cases is actually…

After an almost two-year regulatory process, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) adopted final administrative regulations to implement the state’s 2018 commercial financing disclosure law. Most importantly, the final rules come with a long-awaited effective date: December 9, 2022. The effective date honors prior DFPI statements that a six-month window for compliance…