In a development that provides some measure of relief to businesses operating in West Virginia, particularly within the financial services industry, Gov. Jim Justice signed into law on March 29, 2021, amendments to the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act (WVCCPA). These amendments appear to provide clarity on certain attorneys’ fees provisions in the WVCCPA, to define the process for a pre-suit notice to cure and offer in response, and to provide new limitations…

On the heels of CFPB Acting Director Dave Uejio’s recently released statement to agency staff members, the Bureau again signaled that it is making progress toward issuing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) enacting Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the Dodd-Frank Act). Specifically, in late February, the CFPB filed its fourth status report in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California as part of…

You just heard that a customer has filed for bankruptcy — what do you do now? One of the first steps is to determine whether you should file a proof of claim. How will I be alerted about the bankruptcy? When a bankruptcy case is filed, the debtor is required to list all of his creditors in the petition. Subsequently, the clerk of the bankruptcy court will send out a notice to all listed creditors…

On April 5, 2021, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a proposal to amend the existing loss mitigation rules in Regulation X. As stated in the Bureau’s press release, the proposal is designed to “help prevent avoidable foreclosures as the emergency federal foreclosure protections expire.” To accomplish that goal, the proposed rule has a few primary components, none of which are overly surprising given Acting Director David Uejio’s prior statements and the many rumors…

On April 1, 2021, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau emphasized that the mortgage servicing industry must prepare now for an inevitable increase later this year in loss mitigation requests from borrowers whose COVID-19 forbearance plans come to an end. In what is certainly not an April Fools’ joke, the CFPB issued a detailed bulletin that is likely to make servicers a bit nervous. The Bureau acknowledges there will be increased and, in many ways, unique…

On March 31, 2021, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rescinded seven recent policy statements and one bulletin in an effort to ensure compliance with consumer protection laws and reinforce its supervisory and enforcement authority. These rescissions are effective April 1, 2021. The policy statements, which were issued between March 26 through June 3, 2020, were designed to provide flexibility to financial institutions that faced compliance challenges during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Generally…

In a landmark decision released this morning, the U.S. Supreme Court finally answered the question that has been at the heart of Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) litigation for decades – what constitutes an autodialer? – and the decision is a huge win for TCPA defendants. In Facebook v. Duguid, the Supreme Court unanimously held that, in order to qualify as an autodialer under the TCPA, a dialer must not only dial stored numbers using…