Nearly four years after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) first promulgated its rule regulating payday loans, a federal district court in Texas upheld the payment provisions of the rule against various constitutional and other challenges. The court, which had previously stayed the rule’s original compliance date, also provided that the provisions would become effective in 286 days—on June 13, 2022.…

On August 10, 2021, the CFPB’s Office of Supervision Policy published a report titled Mortgage Servicing COVID-19 Pandemic Response Metrics: Observations from Data Reported by Sixteen Servicers (“Servicing Metrics Report”).  Although the Servicing Metrics Report doesn’t allege any compliance deficiencies in the servicers’ performance, the topics addressed in the report and the CFPB’s accompanying press release indicate areas of focus for the CFPB, and servicers should take note.…

On August 6, 2021, the U.S. Department of Education announced that it would extend the moratorium on federal student loan payments until January 31, 2022. According to the Department’s press release, this will be the final moratorium extension. As we discussed back in 2020, the CARES Act provided temporary financial relief to federal student loan borrowers. That relief included (1) a pause on federal student loan payments, (2) the suspension of interest accrual during the…

The set of federal agencies tasked with determining which residential mortgage loans may be exempt from credit risk retention in securitizations are continuing to think about it. Late last month, the Securities and Exchange Commission, Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Federal Reserve Board, Federal Housing Finance Agency (“FHFA”), and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (together, the “Agencies”) announced that they hope to have more answers by the end of…

The Dodd-Frank Act provides the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) with authority to obtain a broad range of legal and equitable remedies, as well as civil money penalties. Our recent Legal Update discusses a recent opinion from the 7th Circuit in CFPB v. Consumer First Legal Group, LLC, which provides critical judicial guideposts for how and when these remedies apply. This decision should play an important role in future CFPB enforcement actions. The Legal Update…

The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (“DFPI” or the “Department”) will have no shortage of applications to process before year end.  Last week, the DFPI reminded industry participants that, beginning on September 1, 2021, it will make available through the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System (“NMLS”) the application needed to apply for a license under the Debt Collection Licensing Act (“DCLA”).  Passed in September of 2020, the DCLA (SB 908) requires any person engaged…

As many of us look forward to our summer vacations, the NMLS also has plans to take time off this summer.  Due to system maintenance, beginning Wednesday, July 21 at 8:00 p.m. ET, the NMLS and NMLS Consumer Access will be unavailable for four full days, July 22 through July 25, with an anticipated return to operations on Monday July 26 at 7:00 a.m. ET.  This maintenance period is significantly longer than previous maintenance…