On January 17, 2025, the CFPB issued a consent order against a large consumer reporting agency for failing to properly investigate consumer disputes concerning inaccurate information on consumers’ credit reports. The CFPB alleges the agency violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), by relying on ineffective processes and failing to thoroughly investigate disputes. Continue Reading CFPB Orders Credit Reporting Agency to Pay $15 Million for Mishandling Consumer Disputes
On January 7, 2025, the United States Department of Justice (the “DOJ”) announced that a non-depository mortgage lender has agreed to pay $1.75 million in connection with allegations that it engaged in a pattern or practice of lending discrimination by redlining predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhoods.Continue Reading DOJ Announces Third Settlement with a Non-Depository Lender to Resolve Alleged Redlining Claims
On January 6, 2025, the CFPB filed a lawsuit against a non-bank manufactured home financing company for violations of the Truth in Lending Act and Regulation Z. The lawsuit alleges that the mortgage lender engaged in predatory lending practices by providing manufactured home loans to borrowers it knew could not afford them.Continue Reading CFPB Sues Mortgage Lender for Predatory Lending Practices in Manufacture Homes Loans
On December 27, 2024, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) announced a notice of assessment of a civil money penalty against a Kansas-based bank. The action, originally brought in November, imposed a $20.4 million civil money penalty against the bank and alleged violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), 31 U.S.C. § 5311 et seq., for its failure to implement an adequate anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism program.Continue Reading FDIC Enforcement Spotlights Deficiencies in Kansas Bank’s Anti-Money Laundering Program
On December 30, the Department of Justice (DOJ), at the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) referral, filed an amended complaint against an online cash advance provider. The complaint now names the company’s CEO as a defendant, alleging violations of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 45(a), and the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act, 15 U.S.C. § 8403. Continue Reading FTC and DOJ File Amended Complaint Against Cash Advance Fintech
On December 9, the CFPB entered into a consent order with a debt collection agency for alleged unlawful student loan debt collection practices against defaulted borrowers. The debt collection agency’s allegedly improper practices included delaying borrowers’ loan rehabilitation processes to generate and collect fees that cost individual borrowers thousands of dollars. These actions were in violation of the CFPA’s prohibitions on unfair and abusive acts or practices and the FDCPA. See 12 U.S.C. §§ 5563, 5565;15 U.S.C. § 1692l(b)(6).Continue Reading CFPB Bans Debt Collection Agency Over Student Loan Abuses
On December 3, the CFPB filed a proposed settlement to resolve a long running lawsuit against a student loan relief company and its owner (collectively, the “Defendants”). The settlement bars the company from offering or providing debt settlement products. In addition, the Defendants must pay $2,000 in civil monetary penalties, an amount determined based on their inability to pay more.Continue Reading CFPB’s Settlement Imposes Permanent Ban on Defunct Student Loan Relief Company and Its Owner
On November 13, the Federal Reserve Board issued two cease and desist orders against a state-chartered bank and a bank holding company for alleged compliance deficiencies.Continue Reading Federal Reserve Board Penalizes Two Banks for Compliance Deficiencies
On November 14, the CFPB entered into a consent order with a telecommunications company and its subsidiaries (collectively, the “company”) for allegedly withdrawing millions of dollars from over half a million consumer accounts and preventing money transfers to incarcerated individuals, depriving them of essential goods like food, medicine, and clothing, in violation of the CFPA’s prohibitions on unfair acts or practices.Continue Reading CFPB Hits Telecom Giant with Fines for Alleged Exploitation of Incarcerated Consumers
On November 7, 2024, the CFPB ordered one of the largest credit unions in the nation to pay over $95 million for its practices related to the imposition of overdraft fees. The enforcement action addresses practices from 2017 to 2022 where the credit union charged overdraft fees on transactions that appeared to have sufficient funds, affecting consumers including those in the military community, in violation of the CFPA’s prohibition on unfair, deceptive, and abusive acts or practices.Continue Reading CFPB Imposes $95 Million Fine on Large Credit Union for Overdraft Fee Practices
On November 1, the CFPB filed a proposed stipulated final order that would resolve the Bureau’s pending lawsuit in the Northern District of Illinois against a nonbank mortgage lender and broker for allegedly engaging in redlining and other discriminatory lending practices. In its underlying complaint filed in 2020, the CFPB alleged that the defendant violated the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (“ECOA”) by making statements in podcasts, radio shows, and marketing materials that discouraged prospective African-American applicants in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs from applying for mortgage loans.Continue Reading CFPB Reaches Settlement in Redlining Suit Against Nonbank Mortgage Lender