Go-To Guide:
- CFPB proposes rule requiring nonbanks to “register” with the CFPB if they include certain terms and conditions in their form contracts, including in their website terms of use
News & Commentary on Financial Regulatory and Compliance Matters
Benjamin Saul is a shareholder in the firm’s Financial Regulatory and Compliance Practice. For two decades, Ben has handled high-stakes regulatory, enforcement, and litigation matters for corporate and individual clients in the consumer finance, specialty finance, fintech, and banking sectors.
Ben has helped clients navigate dozens of contentious supervisory, enforcement, and litigation matters involving the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and has been a leader in the private bar on CFPB matters since the Bureau’s inception in 2011. He also routinely assists clients in matters involving the FTC, DOJ, HUD, OCC, FRB, FDIC, state financial services authorities, state attorneys general, and state civil rights commissions. Ben’s enforcement matters have concerned fair lending and servicing, unfair deceptive and/or abusive trade practices, other federal and state consumer finance laws, AML/BSA, troubled or failed banks, fiduciary duties, financial institution fraud, supervisory ratings, and other safety and soundness issues. These matters often have involved parallel proceedings by multiple enforcement agencies and/or private parties.
Ben also advises lenders, servicers, alternative financial service providers, and money service businesses on product and service development, licensing, compliance program enhancement, and the applicability of federal and state consumer credit and other financial services laws. He frequently helps clients understand how financial services law maps onto new technologies and innovative products, having worked on matters involving big data, artificial intelligence, marketplace and online lending, blockchain, digital assets and cryptocurrencies, digital banking, and payment systems. In addition, Ben provides financial services regulatory support for corporate and capital markets transactions.
Go-To Guide:
Federal regulatory agencies are closely monitoring crypto-asset developments and banking organizations’ participation in the crypto-asset industry. This GT Alert covers the guidance issued by the FDIC, CFPB, and the Federal…
Continue Reading Regulatory Scrutiny on the Rise of Bank and Crypto Company Dealings
On Aug. 11, 2022, the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued guidance indicating that financial institutions and service providers that fail to adopt sufficient data security measures to protect consumer…
Continue Reading CFPB Warns Insufficient Data Security Measures May Violate Consumer Financial Protection Act
On May 26, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (the Bureau or CFPB) issued its third Circular, emphasizing that creditors must adhere to the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and…
Continue Reading CFPB Circular 2022-03: Complex Lending Algorithms Cannot Excuse Failure to Provide Specific, Principal Reasons for an Adverse Credit Determination
On May 19, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) issued an interpretive rule (Section 1042 Interpretive Rule 5 19 2022) confirming that the Consumer Financial…
Continue Reading Deputizing State AGs: CFPB Issues Broad New Interpretive Rule on States’ Ability to Enforce Federal Consumer Protection Laws
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or the Bureau) announced it would begin issuing Consumer Financial Protection Circulars (Circulars) to a “broad set of government agencies responsible for enforcing federal…
Continue Reading CFPB to Issue Consumer Financial Protection Circulars to Increase Transparency and Align Enforcement
On May 16, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) issued a report regarding COVID-19 response metrics based upon its “observations from data obtained by 16 large mortgage…
Continue Reading CFPB Metrics Report Shows Increased Scrutiny of Borrower Access to Servicers, Information, and Loss Mitigation Opportunities
On May 9, 2022, the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB or the Bureau) issued an advisory opinion to clarify that the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and Regulation B (Reg…
Continue Reading CFPB Advisory Opinion Clarifies that ECOA Applies Throughout Credit Lifecycle
As nonbanks comprise an ever-greater share of the consumer-finance market, on April 25, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB, or the Bureau) announced it would invoke its “unused” legal…
Continue Reading CFPB to Examine Nonbank Financial Companies – Including Fintechs – that Pose Risk to Consumers
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has expanded its anti-discrimination oversight and enforcement of covered persons to all consumer finance products and services, regardless of whether they involve an extension of…
Continue Reading CFPB Expands Anti-Discrimination by Applying UDAAP to Credit and Non-credit Products