In December 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Bureau) rolled out a series of important measures aimed at addressing potential misconduct in the credit card industry, improving consumer protections, and promoting transparency and competition in the market. The Bureau’s initiatives come at a time when credit card usage is peaking…
On December 6, 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had filed suit against a bank subsidiary of a financial services company for allegedly disconnecting customer service calls, charging illegal ATM fees, misleading fraud victims, imposing illegal terms of service on consumers seeking to stop payments, failing to investigate account…
On October 23, 2024, the CFPB announced that it had entered into separate consent orders with a large tech company and a bank over a joint credit card venture. The CFPB alleges that the credit card, which combined the tech company’s software with the credit-backing of the bank, was launched prematurely, which…
On September 13, 2024. the CFPB brought suit in the Western District of Pennsylvania against the nonbank offeror of a consumer credit card and its CEO alleging that the terms of the company’s credit card violated the Consumer Financial Protection Act, the Truth In Lending Act, and Regulation Z. According to the…
On July 19, 2024, the Federal Reserve Board announced it had fined a Utah-based company that offers prepaid debit cards $44 million for alleged unfair and deceptive practices as well as an alleged deficient consumer compliance risk management program. In its Order to Cease and Desist and Order of Assessment of…
On May 9, 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a new Issue Spotlight regarding growing problems in the credit card rewards program industry. Credit card rewards programs have become increasingly complex in recent years. Especially for credit cards with high annual fees, a key part of attracting interest…
Last week, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (Chamber) joined five other trade associations to sue the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and its director Rohit Chopra in Texas Federal District Court, seeking a court order declaring a recent CFPB rule arbitrary and capricious, vacating the rule, and enjoining its enforcement. In…
On Tuesday, March 5, 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a final rule (Final Rule) which amends provisions of Regulation Z, which implements the Truth in Lending Act (TILA). The Final Rule amends the provisions related to the permissible late fee that a credit card issuer may impose…
On November 8, 2023, the CFPB and a national bank entered into a consent order to resolve allegations that the bank engaged in intentional discrimination against Armenian Americans who had applied for credit cards with said bank. Specifically, the CFPB alleges that between 2016 and 2021, the bank singled out…
On Tuesday May 23, the CFPB announced it had reached a settlement with a large bank to resolve allegations that the bank had violated consumer protection laws in connection with credit card transactions. The CFPB alleged that the bank “failed to properly manage and respond to customers’ credit card disputes and…
On February 1, 2023, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a proposed rule with request for public comment to amend Regulation Z, the implementing regulation of the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), to “better ensure that the late fees charged on credit card accounts are ‘reasonable and proportional’ to…
On September 1, 2022, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it reached a settlement with a personal finance company to resolve allegations that it engaged in deceptive acts or practices in violation of Section 5(a) of the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTCA), 15 U.S.C. § 45(a). According to the FTC, the personal…
On July 28, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had entered into a consent order with a large national bank to resolve alleged violations of the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), 15 U.S.C. § 1601 et seq., and its implementing regulation, Regulation Z (Reg Z), 12 C.F.R. part 1026; the Fair Credit…
On March 21, 2022, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it obtained a permanent injunction against a credit repair company and its CEO, barring the company from making representations that it can improve consumers’ credit scores. The injunction was issued by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas in relation…
On November 8, 2021, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed the Consumer Credit Fairness Act (the Act) into law. The Act will likely have substantial impact on debt collection lawsuits filed by creditors or debt collectors in New York. The Act not only reduces the statute of limitations for filing…
On March 23, 2021, the New York State Department of Financial Services (“DFS”) announced that it had issued a report summarizing its findings on the compliance of the underwriting of a technology company’s credit card with fair lending practices and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (“ECOA”). DFS began investigating the credit card’s underwriter, a…
On February 25, 2021, the United States District Court for the District of Kansas issued an opinion granting summary judgment in favor of CardX, LLC (CardX), and found unconstitutional “a Kansas law that prohibits sellers from imposing a ‘surcharge’ at the time of sale on consumers who pay by credit…
On March 4, 2021, Virginia’s Attorney General (AG) announced that it had reached a settlement with an open-end credit lender, resolving allegations that the lender violated the state’s consumer finance statutes. The AG alleged that from September 2013 through July 2017, the lender charged $100 origination fees on loans that were in…
On February 10, 2021, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced settlements with two payment processing companies and two individuals, resolving claims concerning an alleged credit card laundering scheme perpetrated in violation of the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC Act), 15 U.S.C. § 53(b), and the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Act (Telemarketing Act), 15 U.S.C. §§…
On February 8, state Attorneys General for North Carolina, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania (State AGs) announced a $4.2 million settlement with a national bank to resolve allegations that it overcharged credit card interest for certain customers. According to the settlement agreement, the State AGs conducted a joint investigation into whether, between 2011…