States

Leandra English, the former deputy director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), recently joined the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) as a special policy advisor to Superintendent Linda Lacewell.

English brings nearly 10 years of experience dealing with consumer financial protection laws to the department, having served in various leadership capacities at the CFPB, as well as at other organizations focused on consumer protection issues.

Learn more details about her new regulatory oversight role. 

With the dust far from settled on the largest data breach to date, Capital One revealed that it too has suffered a major breach, exposing personal information for 106 million credit card customers in U.S. and Canada.

The incident already has caught the ire of the New York Attorney General’s office and could be the subject of federal regulatory action similar to that recently taken against Equifax.

Learn more about the breach and its potential regulatory implications.

Financial services and cannabis industry advocates have urged Congress to act in eliminating legal risks associated with financing marijuana-related businesses (MRBs) by passing the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act.

The Senate Banking Committee recently heard testimony by multiple financial and legal experts, arguing that the question of whether to provide a safe harbor for financial institutions which finance MRBs is a matter of public safety.

Learn what arguments were presented during the hearing.

A recent case involving one of the world’s largest multinational hotel organizations highlights the types of add-on charges that regulators may determine to be intended to deceive consumers, resulting in hefty fines for the businesses responsible.

The interpretation relying upon by the state attorney general in this case is similar to that used in crafting many federal laws concerning consumer financial protection.   

Find out more details about the case and its possible implications.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently settled with Student CU Connect CUSO, LLC (CUSO), a company established to hold and manage private loans for students at ITT Technical Institute, for allegedly engaging in unfair and deceptive actions.

Forty-four states and the District of Columbia also settled with CUSO under the same terms.

Learn what tactics the bureau cited in its complaint and stipulated judgment.

Former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Richard Cordray and Rohit Chopra, who serves on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), were the keynote speakers during the University of Michigan’s two-day Consumer Protection in an Age of Uncertainty forum.

They offered warnings about the potential negative consequences to law-abiding businesses and consumers resulting from the loosening of federal consumer protection policies.

Find out more about their takes on the current state the regulatory environment.

As many predicted, the dropoff in enforcement aggressiveness from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has led to growth in state-level consumer protection activity – albeit slow, uneven growth.

Some states have been quicker than others to ramp up enforcement activity as the CFPB has become less aggressive, and Buckley Sandler Partner Jonice Gray Tucker explained to Dodd Frank Update some likely reasons for that and how some states are overcoming certain hurdles to becoming more involved on the consumer protection front.

Learn how conflicting political and regulatory ideas hinder state regulators’ efforts to band together.

Wells Fargo did more than kill the proverbial two birds with one proverbial stone when it agreed to pay $575 million to cover damages across all 50 states caused by the bank’s previously disclosed improper retail sales practices, as well as those pertaining to automotive insurance products and mortgage interest rate locks.

In addition to being the largest multistate settlement on record, the matter highlights which states were more affected by the company’s improper practices than others and how some states have chosen to use settlement proceeds to try and prevent consumers from falling victim to similar practices in the future.

Find out more details about what the settlement reveals.

A month after polling places across the country closed their doors for the night, it appears we finally know how the congressional races turned out.

Well … almost.

The Senate has been finalized, and the House appeared to be as well as the final contested race in California seems to be decided. However, allegations in a North Carolina race for Financial Services Committee member Robert Pittenger’s seat have thrown a race thought to be over into unknown status. Read on for the latest on the makeup of the 116th Congress.

Parties connected to a debt collection operation were charged with tricking consumers into paying more than they owe and have been sued by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the New York Attorney General’s (NYAG) office.

The FTC does not have the statutory authority to seek redress for harmed consumers but the NYAG does under New York state law and exercised it in this case.

Find out more details about the case.