Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection Settles With Bluestem

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (Bureau) and Bluestem Brands, Inc.; Bluestem Enterprises, Inc.; and Bluestem Sales, Inc. (the Bluestem companies), have filed an administrative consent order resolving the Bureau’s allegations that after consumers made payments to the Bluestem companies on debts that the companies had already sold, the Bluestem companies substantially delayed sending those payments to the third-party debt buyers.

US regulators suggests banks and credit unions share resources to fight financial crime

The federal depository institutions regulators and the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) today issued a statement to address instances in which certain banks and credit unions may decide to enter into collaborative arrangements to share resources to manage their Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and anti-money laundering (AML) obligations more efficiently and effectively.

Waters Introduces Bill to Reset CFPB Structure

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), the ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, has introduced a bill that is designed to address changes made by the Trump Administration to the internal operations of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).  Waters’ HR 6972, the Consumers First Act, is somewhat unusual in its harsh denunciation of Acting CFPB Mick Mulvaney and his interim leadership of the agency—the bill makes no mention of Kathy Kraninger, who is awaiting Senate confirmation to become the agency’s new Director.

TransUnion Receives Outstanding Company Culture Award

TransUnion (NYSE: TRU) announced today that the company was awarded the 19th Annual ITA (Illinois Technology Association) CityLIGHTS Award for “Outstanding Company Culture.” The 19th Annual ITA CityLIGHTS Awards is the premier annual event in the region that elevates and honors achievements from the local technology community.

Following NAFCU comments, FCC seeks further input on TCPA

After NAFCU sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Tuesday urging it to clear up confusion surrounding the definition of an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS) in light of mixed court decisions on the matter, the FCC is now requesting further comments on the subject. NAFCU will again reiterate credit unions' concerns with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) to the FCC during this comment period, which is open until Oct. 17.

Fear of FinTech: 5 misconceptions keeping you from the future of finance

The world of finance and the technology that supports it is constantly evolving. As early as 1866, the first transatlantic cable was laid, providing an infrastructure for financial globalization. A century later, the ATM/ABM was introduced, and by 1998, banks established the first transactional websites for Internet banking. That commitment to innovation continues to drive the finance technology or “FinTech” industry at a rapid pace, as evidenced by the more recent arrival of mobile banking and smartphone payments.

FCC issues call for public input on definition of autodialer

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has issued a proposal seeking further comment on the definition of an autodialer under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). CUNA has called on the FCC to clarify the definition of autodialer in a May petition to the FCC.  The FCC revised the TCPA in 2015, creating several concerns for credit unions seeking to contact members with important information while remaining in compliance with the TCPA. The public notice issued Wednesday comes after a 9^th Circuit Court decision. Specifically, the FCC seeks comment on what constitutes an “automated telephone dialing system” (ATDS).

Eleventh Annual Federal Trade Commission Microeconomics Conference

The Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Economics will host a two-day conference to bring together scholars working in areas related to the FTC’s antitrust, consumer protection, and public policy missions. Those fields include industrial organization, quantitative marketing, information economics, health policy, and behavioral economics. Examples of potentially relevant topics include healthcare provider competition, vertical contracting, advertising, merger policy, innovation, privacy, intellectual property, nonlinear contracting, bargaining, collusion, e-commerce, demand estimation, pharmaceutical markets, appropriate statistical standards for inference, and consumer decision-making.

In The Battle Between Online Lenders And Banks, Data Wins

Online lenders arrived on scene at the perfect time for Silicon Valley. Coming out of the 2008 financial crisis, banks – the traditional lenders – were slow to understand the way that consumers wanted to access credit and were (understandably) reluctant to take on risk. Rather than focusing on consumers’ needs and demands, banks were focused on other issues: regulatory challenges, capital constraints, and core technology built in the 1960s – inadvertently opening themselves up to the rise of online lenders.

Debt Collection May Change for Student Loan Borrowers

TSI Announces Jim Tarantino as New Chief Revenue Officer

Lake Forest, IL – October 2, 2018: TSI (www.tsico.com) announced this week that Jim Tarantino has joined the leadership team as Chief Revenue Officer. Jim will be responsible for driving revenue growth and will lead the sales, client management, marketing, and small- and mid-sized enterprise teams.

Mulvaney backs CFPB official under fire for blog posts dismissing racism

The acting chief of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) said Tuesday that an official under fire for blog posts dismissing racism will remain in charge of the agency’s lending discrimination cases.   Acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney told bureau employees in an email obtained by The Hill that Eric Blankenstein would not be fired or reassigned despite a growing revolt over his leadership of the bureau’s office of supervision, enforcement and fair lending.

Commentary: Seven habits of highly secure digital natives

SINGAPORE: When it comes to cybersecurity, humans are the weakest link. Attackers often leverage on this weakness to gain access to sensitive data, carry out scams and perform fraud.  Living in Singapore, with our low crime, effective security and strong legal system, people are often fooled into thinking the same of the internet world. Or they adopt the “who would target me?” syndrome. But, the connected digital world means anonymous attackers can target anyone in the world.

FCC fines one telemarketer for spoofing calls and proposes fines for another

The Federal Communications Commission has fined one telemarketer more than $82 million — one of its largest-ever fines — and proposed another $37.5 million in fines for another, both related to call spoofing.  In the first case, telemarketer Philip Roesel and his companies were fined more than $82 million for making more than 21 million robocalls selling health insurance from spoofed numbers. The FCC had first proposed the fine to Roesel and his companies, including Wilmington Insurance Quotes and Best Insurance Contracts, last summer under the Truth in Caller ID Act.

KAULKIN GINSBERG AND COLLECTION QUOTIENT CONSULTING ANNOUNCE THE LAUNCH OF FED DEBT OPPS©

Germantown, MD. – Kaulkin Ginsberg Company (KGC) and Collection Quotient Consulting (CoQc) are pleased to announce the launch of Fed Debt Opps,a joint venture designed to help collection agencies and related service providers enter, or expand within, the burgeoning $400+ billion Federal Government debt collection and call center marketplace.

Edge computing: the cyber security risks you must consider

Edge computing is based around the idea that, to cope with the vast amounts of data generated by IoT sensors and environmental monitors, computing and network infrastructure will need a rethink: a lot of that data will need to be analysed and processed at the edge of the network, rather than transported to a remote centralised data centre. With processing being done close to where data is generated, such architectures will be able to deliver better performance and efficiency, and ultimately allow companies to reduce their operational expenses.

West Virginia And Kentucky College Students Still Struggle To Pay Back Loans

New research this month shows that West Virginia and Kentucky have some of the nation’s worst rates of student loan defaults.   West Virginia had the highest and Kentucky the fourth-highest rate of student loan defaults, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Education

Credit reporting agency fined $3.5m for deceiving consumers

Australia’s largest consumer credit reporting agency, Equifax, has joined the finance sector's disgrace list after being hit with a $3.5 million fine for misleading, deceptive and unconscionable conduct following legal action by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission  (ACCC).  This includes asking consumers to pay for their own credit histories, which they have the legal right to obtain for free.

Sequium Introduces the Most Technologically Advanced Mobile App DAVID℠- Slay Your Debt℠, To the COLLECTION INDUSTRY.

Marietta, GA- October 2nd, 2018- Sequium Asset Solutions, LLC, a leader in outsourced Accounts Receivable Management, has announced their proprietary and data-driven mobile application called DAVID℠; that will allow consumers to solve their obligations when it comes to debt management, and empower them to be in control of their own financial situations.

U.S. Trustee Program Reaches $5 Million Settlement with Citibank to Protect Debtors in Bankruptcy

The Department of Justice’s U.S. Trustee Program (USTP) has entered into a national settlement agreement with Citibank N.A. (Citibank), Department Stores National Bank (DSNB) (collectively Citi), and FDS Bank requiring Citi to pay $5 million to remediate robo-signed proofs of claim filed in consumer bankruptcy cases in connection with more than 71,000 Macy’s-branded credit card accounts, Director Cliff White of the Executive Office for U.S. Trustees announced today.

Justice Department Files Net Neutrality Lawsuit Against the State of California

The Justice Department today filed a lawsuit against the state of California alleging that Senate Bill 822, an Internet regulation bill signed into law earlier today by Governor Jerry Brown, unlawfully imposes burdens on the Federal Government’s deregulatory approach to the Internet, announced Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Acting Associate Attorney General Jesse Panuccio, Assistant Attorney General Joseph H. Hunt for the Justice Department’s Civil Division, and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai.

Five Convicted in Fraudulent Debt Collection Scheme

VENTURA, California – District Attorney Gregory D. Totten announced today the felony conviction of five members of a debt collection scheme: Timothy Edmond Burke, Jr. (DOB 8/24/81), of Las Vegas; Deisi Tapia Rivera (DOB 10/18/83), of Las Vegas; Veronica Esther Ventura (DOB 8/20/84), of Oxnard; Angela Maire Covarrubias (DOB 5/14/76), of Ventura; and Elizabeth Angie  (DOB 12/26/77) of Santa Paula.

WebRecon Stats for August 2018: It’s a Sweep!

Quick analysis: It’s a sweep! For the first time in two and a half years (Feb 2016), every category of complaint we track on a monthly basis (FDCPA, FCRA, TCPA, BCFP and even BBB) are up over the previous month. Furthermore, all three lawsuits categories (FDCPA, FCRA, TCPA) are up by significant margins (24.1%, 13.6% and 13.5% respectively). That just hasn’t happened in a really long time.

Top consumer bureau official blasts colleague over blog posts dismissing racism

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) official in charge of fair lending is pulling her support for a top agency aide over blog posts he wrote that dismissed hate crimes and used racial slurs.  Patrice Ficklin, director of the CFPB’s fair lending office, wrote in an email to agency employees obtained by The Hill that she has asked the agency’s acting director Mick Mulvaney to halt a reorganization of her office due to the posts.

Liberty Parent Company’s Acquisition of PHH Receives Regulatory Approval

The parent company of Liberty Home Equity Solutions received key approvals from government regulators in its blockbuster deal to acquire fellow mortgage lender PHH Corp (NYSE: PHH).  Ocwen Financial Corporation (NYSE: OCN) on Friday announced that it has met all of the regulatory and contractual obligations necessary for it to formally take over PHH Corp., with a closing date expected within the next 10 days. The West Palm Beach, Fla.-based company first announced its plans to buy PHH in a $360 million, all-cash deal back in February.

California governor signs tough net neutrality bill prompting lawsuit from Trump administration

Caliornia Gov. Jerry Brown signed the nation's toughest net utrality measure Sunday, requiring internet providers to maintain a level playing field online.The move prompted an immediate lawsuit by the Trump administration.   Advocates of net neutrality hope the new law in the home of the global technology industry will have national implications by pushing Congress to enact national net neutrality rules or encouraging other states to follow suit.

$505 Million in Refunds Sent to Payday Loan Customers From the Federal Trade Commission

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – If you took out an online payday loan from a company affiliated with AMG Services, you may be getting a check in the mail from the FTC. The $505 million the FTC is returning to consumers makes this the largest refund program the agency has ever administered

FCC issues major enforcement actions to combat robocalls

Student Debt Relief Operators Agree to Settle FTC Charges

The operators of a student loan debt relief scam have agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that they bilked millions from consumers by falsely claiming to enroll consumers in loan forgiveness programs, for which they charged up to $1,000 in illegal upfront fees.  The five settlements are part of a coordinated federal-state law enforcement initiative targeting deceptive student loan debt relief scams announced by the FTC in October 2017, called Operation Game of Loans.

Lending Club Agrees To Pay $2 Million Penalty To Resolve Investigation Into Its Lending Practices

SAN FRANCISCO – Peer-to-peer lending company LendingClub Corporation of San Francisco, Calif., has agreed to pay a civil penalty of $2 million to resolve allegations that it violated the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA), announced United States Attorney Alex G. Tse, Special Agent in Charge John F. Bennett of the Federal Bureau of Investigation San Francisco Field Office, and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Office of Inspector General Special Agent in Charge Wade V. Walters.  

Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection Advisory Committees Meet With New Members

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (Bureau) today began meetings in Washington, D.C. with members of its revamped Consumer Advisory Board, Community Bank Advisory Council, and Credit Union Advisory Council. This is the first joint gathering of these three panels of experts, who advise Bureau leadership on a broad range of consumer financial issues and emerging market trends.  "This marks the first meeting of the experts from outside government that make up the Bureau’s new-look advisory committees, who are providing a wide array of new perspectives to consumer protection," said Bureau Acting Director Mick Mulvaney. "We look forward to hearing high-quality feedback from these experts in consumer finance markets to inform the Bureau’s decision-making going forward.

Financial Markets in the Digital Era

The Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit met today to examine new opportunities for technological innovation to develop new products and services consumers across the financial lobe need.   “The pace of technological development in financial services has increased exponentially and dramatically, offering both benefits and potential challenges to the U.S. economy and consumers,” said Subcommittee Chairman Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO). “We can’t address innovation and growth without addressing the security of that data. I’m glad the July Treasury report made that a priority. The Department has clearly outlined the need for a single federal data security and notification standard that raises the bar for all industries, and ensures a better outcome for all consumers. Outdated and problematic regulations need to be overhauled, and growth must be monitored but not unnecessarily slowed.”

SEC bars founder of lending company from securities industry

The Securities and Exchange Commission has barred the founder and former CEO of Lending Club, an online lending company, from the securities industry. The financial regulatory agency also brought charges against an investment fund associated with the online lender, which Renaud Laplanche led through a high-profile initial public offering four years ago.  In a release announcing its enforcement order, the SEC alleged that Lending Club Asset Management violated its fiduciary duty by advising private investment funds to invest in peer-to-peer style loans the company knew might go unfunded, to benefit its parent company Lending Club.

FTC, DOJ Refund $1.2M To Consumers Hurt In AMG Payday Lending Scam

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), working in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Justice, announced on Thursday (Sept. 27) that it is mailing 1,179,803 refund checks totaling more than $505 million to people who were deceived by a payday lending scheme operated by AMG Services, Inc. and Scott A. Tucker.   In a press release, the FTC said the refunds stem from the $1.3 billion civil court judgment and order the FTC obtained against Tucker and his companies for violating the FTC Act and the Truth In Lending Act. According to the FTC, they deceived consumers around the country and illegally charged hefty, undisclosed fees. This marks the largest litigated judgment ever obtained by the FTC, the government agency said in the press release.

Christine Wilson Sworn In as FTC Commissioner Following Maureen Ohlhausen’s Departure

H.R.5082 Proposes Change to FDCPA and CFPB

On February 23, 2018, Representative Alexander Mooney (R-WV) and Representative Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX) introduced H.R.5082 – Practice of Law Technical Clarification Act of 2018, which proposes to remove attorneys from Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) supervisory and enforcement authority and from the definition of a debt collector under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) when engaged in legal proceedings. The full text of the Bill can be found here: https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/5082/text.

FCC Hangs Blockbuster $37.5 Million Fine Over Robocaller Accused of Spoofing Real Numbers

The FCC has announced its proposal to impose a fine of $37.5 million on a company accused of making robocalls and hiding the calls’ origin behind the real phone numbers of consumers. The agency is attempting to show that it’s cracking down on the out of control robocall industry, but critics say it’s too little, too late.  On Wednesday, the FCC said that it was alerted by a whistleblower about the robocall practices of an Arizona-based company called Affordable Enterprises. According to the announcement, the company “made more than 2.3 million maliciously-spoofed telemarketing calls to Arizonans during a 14-month span starting in 2016 to sell home improvement and remodeling services.”

Uber Pays $148 Million Over Yearlong Cover-Up Of Data Breach

Uber is paying $148 million to settle claims over the ride-hailing company's cover-up of a data breach in 2016, when hackers stole personal information of some 25 million customers and drivers in the U.S.

Instead of reporting the stolen data as required by law, Uber paid the hackers $100,000. That was in late 2016; it wasn't until November 2017 that Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi revealed that hackers had downloaded the names, email addresses and mobile phone numbers of 57 million Uber users around the world. The figure included 600,000 of the company's drivers, whose names and driver's license numbers were also at risk.

A.G. Underwood Files Suit Against Nine Student Loan Debt Relief Companies For Costly Student Loan Scam

NEW YORK – Attorney General Barbara D. Underwood today announced a lawsuit against nine student loan debt relief companies, their financing company, and two individuals with leadership roles in several of the companies. The lawsuit, filed in New York Supreme Court, alleges that the defendants fraudulently, deceptively, and illegally advertise, market, offer for sale, sell, and finance student debt relief services to thousands of consumers nationwide, including thousands of New Yorkers. 

Steve Towle Joins RevSpring as President and Chief Operating Officer

LIVONIA, MI (September 26, 2018) – RevSpring is pleased to announce that Steve Towle has joined RevSpring as President and Chief Operating Officer. Steve brings extensive experience in operating and managing large scale print and digital operations and will be instrumental in supporting the integration efforts between RevSpring and Apex Revenue Technologies, as well as streamlining RevSpring’s combined operations and continuing to improve quality for RevSpring customers.   “RevSpring’s aim is to align our product development and delivery functions, as well as continue to provide exceptional customer service and end-to-end service offerings to our customers,” said Rahul Gupta, RevSpring’s CEO. team.”

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