Reg F Question of the Week: How Long is a Consumer’s Direct Prior Consent Valid?

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has published Debt Collection Rule FAQs for Regulation F, containing questions and answers that pertain to compliance with the rule. The FAQs cover limited-content messages, call frequency issues and more.

Arizona State Court Issues Show Cause Order: Will Review Constitutionality of Arizona Protection from Predatory Debt Collection Act

On December 5, an Arizona Superior Court for Maricopa County issued an Order to Show Cause to the state of Arizona and scheduled an expedited evidentiary hearing in a suit challenging the newly passed Arizona Protection from Predatory Debt Collection Act (the Act), also known as Proposition 209. Arizona voters passed the Act in the November midterm elections and it became effective on December 5, the same day the suit and show cause order were filed.

Wing Financial Files Notice of Data Breach Affecting Over 240k Clients

On December 1, 2022, Wing Financial (an independently owned franchise of Jackson Hewitt) reported a data breach with the Maine Attorney General after confirming that an unauthorized party was able to access confidential consumer information that had been entrusted to the company.

New York Telemarketing Law Requires Immediate Disclosure of DNC Right

In December 2022, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed a bill into law that requires telemarketers to advise consumers at the very beginning of telemarketing calls of their right to be placed on the company’s Do-Not-Call (DNC) list. This amends existing law (Section 399-Z) that had required telemarketers to disclose the right to be added to the seller’s entity-specific DNC list during a call but had not stipulated when the disclosure had to be made.

Arizona judge puts part of Proposition 209, which gives medical debt relief, on hold

Arizonans overwhelmingly approved ballot Proposition 209, which reduces the maximum interest rate on medical debt, but a judge has halted the measure from taking full effect, at least for now.

Kinecta Federal Credit Union Recognized by the 2022 Rochester Choice Awards

ROCHESTER, N.Y., Dec. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Democrat & Chronicle, hosts of the annual Rochester Choice Awards, asked the Rochester community to vote for the best businesses and organizations in the area. Kinecta Federal Credit Union was selected as a finalist for Best Credit Union, meaning many Rochester residents made Kinecta their first choice for their banking needs.

You can help caregivers spot illegal nursing home debt collection tactics

There are 48 million family members and friends providing support to an adult in the United States. It’s important for caregivers to understand their rights, especially when it comes to helping a loved one gain admission to a nursing home. Some nursing homes and debt collectors are billing and suing caregivers for residents’ cost of care based on illegal admission contracts. Whether you’re a long-term care ombudsman, care coordinator, elder law attorney, or other aging services provider, you can play a part in protecting caregivers.

OCC judge recommends $18.5M in fines for 3 ex-Wells Fargo execs

Three former Wells Fargo executives should pay $18.5 million in fines over their alleged roles in the bank’s 2016 fake-accounts scandal, an in-house judge for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) recommended in a decision released Wednesday.

Understanding Significant Changes Under PCI DSS 4.0

For PCI-certified organizations, Significant Changes are a common source of confusion, both what is considered a Significant Change and what is required by PCI when one has taken place. In the PCI DSS 4.0, a Significant Change is defined as:

CFPB Investigates Crypto Lender

On December 1, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Bureau) made public an administrative order denying Nexo Financial LLC’s (Nexo) petition to modify the Bureau’s civil investigative demand.  The order represents the first publicly known Bureau investigation of a digital asset company, in this case, over Nexo’s “Earn Interest” crypto lending product.

FTC, State of Florida Act To Permanently Shut Down Grant Bae Business Grant Scam

The operators of an alleged grant scam called Grant Bae that targeted minority-owned businesses will face a permanent ban from grant-writing and business consulting services as a result of a lawsuit brought against them by the Federal Trade Commission and the State of Florida.

Pax­ton Encour­ages the Fed­er­al Trade Com­mis­sion to Take Con­crete Steps to Pro­tect Amer­i­cans’ Privacy

Attorney General Paxton has joined a Massachusetts-led multistate comment letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) conveying the need for stronger privacy protections related to commercial surveillance and data security.  

Arizona Debt Collection Law and Ballot Initiative Under Fire in the Courts

A group of plaintiffs led by the Arizona Creditors Bar Association and Protect Our Arizona, an Arizona political action committee, are challenging the constitutionality of the Arizona Predatory Debt Collection Act, which passed through a ballot initiative in the Nov. 8 midterm elections.

Update on state laws on lending to businesses

In the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis, federal banking regulators took numerous steps to undermine state regulators and enforcers. For example, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the now-defunct Office of Thrift Supervision took steps to nullify state laws protecting the public from predatory mortgage lending. This proved to be catastrophic.

CFPB Finds Members of the Reserves and National Guard Paying Millions of Dollars in Extra Interest Each Year

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released research revealing that Reserve and National Guard members called to active duty are paying an extra $9 million in interest every year because they are not always receiving the benefit of their right to rate reductions under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.

Collections Industry Sees Significant Split Between Large and Small Firms’ Investments in Customer Contact Channels

More than one in three (37%) collections firms are now using text/SMS messaging — a modest increase from last year when 31% were utilizing this communications channel with consumers.

CFPB Targets Garnishment Practices: Banks Need a Robust Compliance Plan

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) entered into a consent order against a large national bank regarding the bank's garnishment-related practices.

Receivables Performance Management Hit with Class Action Over 2021 Data Breach Affecting 3.7 Million People

A proposed class action claims the failure of Receivables Performance Management (RPM) to properly secure the private information of approximately 3.7 million customers is to blame for a 2021 data breach.

Student loan forgiveness “highly unlikely” as Supreme Court reviews case, says expert

December 1st 2022, the federal Supreme Court rejected President Biden’s immediate request to revive his student debt relief plan. The court will review oral arguments in February 2023 and then determine whether the leading lawsuit against the program has merit.

Protecting Those Who Protect Us: Evidence of activated Guard and Reserve servicemembers’ usage of credit protections under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act

The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) provides important legal and financial protections to active duty servicemembers. These protections include the ability to reduce the interest rate on any pre-service obligations or liabilities to a maximum of 6 percent. Existing literature suggests that the interest rate reduction benefit is underutilized. To address this information gap, this report seeks to quantify, for the first time, the use of the SCRA interest rate reduction benefit.

House Committee Announces Hearing with CFPB Director

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra will testify on Capitol Hill next month in a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee (HFSC) just before leadership in the chamber will switch over to a Republican majority.

Changes to HMDA’s closed-end loan reporting threshold

On September 23, 2022, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia issued an order vacating the 2020 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) Final Rule as to the loan volume reporting threshold for closed-end mortgage loans. The decision means that the threshold for reporting data on closed-end mortgage loans is now 25 loans in each of the two preceding calendar years, which is the threshold established by the 2015 HMDA Final Rule, rather than the 100 loan threshold set by the 2020 HMDA Final Rule.

Semi-Annual Report of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection is pleased to present our Semi-Annual Report to Congress for the period beginning October 1, 2021 and ending March 31, 2022. Full report

LexisNexis Risk Solutions Global State of Fraud and Identity Report Reveals Surge in Fraud as Digital Transactions Dominate the Global Marketplace

ATLANTA, Dec. 6, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- LexisNexis® Risk Solutions released the results of its first Global State of Fraud and Identity Report, exploring research and insights from industry experts on recent statistics and trends from our industry-recognized studies on the Global True Cost of Fraud and transaction data from over 39B transactions from the LexisNexis® Digital Identity Network® from January 2022 to June 2022.

Why Credit Unions Are ‘More Affordable’ Than Traditional Banks Right Now

Though inflation is cooling off ever so slightly it still remains at a near 40-year high, and we will likely see higher-than-usual prices stretch into the new year. During these tough times, credit unions could be better options for consumers than big banks.

CFPB seeks to limit banks’ ability to collect on delinquent HELOCs

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is taking the position that banks cannot secure repayment on certain home equity lines of credit by pulling funds from their delinquent customers’ checking accounts.

CFPB Partners With Local Governments to Protect Consumers

On November 18, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published a blog post outlining its recent initiative to share consumer complaint data with cities and counties so they can, “increase their efforts to protect consumers at the local levels.”

CFPB Analyzes Impacts of Higher Mortgage Interest Rates

The CFPB’s Office of Research recently issued a blog post regarding its analyses of the impacts of higher mortgage interest rates on borrowers and potential homebuyers.  The analyses are based on first and second quarter Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data filed by the 55 mortgage lenders that are required, based on their high volume of mortgage lending, to collect and submit HMDA data on a quarterly basis.

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RMAi 2023 Annual Conference

Join us in Las Vegas, February 6-9, for the 2023 RMAI Annual Conference. Registration opens October 3, 2022.