The District Court for the Eastern District of Texas ruled in favor of the banking industry in a lawsuit challenging the legality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s updates to its unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices examination manual.

Five years after being named the defendant in a class-action discrimination lawsuit, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently agreed to a proposed $6 million settlement with 85 employees who claim the bureau showed preferential treatment toward white and male employees to the detriment of their coworkers who are minorities and/or women. 

The Securities and Exchange Commission recently issued an enforcement action against Stanley Black & Decker involving inaccurate proxy disclosures in which the company underreported certain compensation paid to high-level executives. 

The 2024 Filing Instructions Guide for Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) can be found via the websites for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council. The bureau released its Supplemental Guide for Quarterly Filers for 2024 with deadlines for financial institutions tasked with filing HMDA data on a quarterly basis. 

The topic of cryptocurrency has become increasingly mainstream, so much so that Bitcoin ATMs now can be found just about anywhere. The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City recently published an article detailing findings from its research on this relatively new and largely unexamined industry. 

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) will launch a new Banker Engagement Site through FDIC connect to provide a secure portal through which financial institutions may exchange documents, information and communications for consumer compliance and Community Reinvestment Act examinations. 

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently sued a nonbank, high-cost installment lender and several of its subsidiaries for unlawful loan-churning practices, often targeting older Americans and single-parent wage earners with low or fixed annual incomes. 

In the agency’s first enforcement action involving its “marketing rule” pertaining to cryptocurrencies, the Securities and Exchange Commission ordered a fintech investment advisory firm to pay a $1 million settlement for allegedly misleading investors about performance metrics.

The Federal Reserve Board issued a cease-and-desist order against a Kansas-based bank and its subsidiary, citing numerous operational deficiencies discovered during an examination in October 2022. The order directs the bank’s board of directors to submit plans to improve in several areas of concern.