Photo of Benjamin M. Saul

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.

On Sept. 19, 2023, the CFPB issued guidance (Guidance) concerning the legal obligations creditors must observe when employing complex algorithms, marketed as artificial intelligence (AI), and other predictive decision-making technologies

Continue Reading CFPB Issues Guidance on Credit Denials Involving Artificial Intelligence

On Aug. 2, 2023, California’s Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) released a new rule expanding its authority to regulate unfair, deceptive, and abusive acts and practices (UDAAP). The

Continue Reading California Regulator Finalizes Rule Expanding UDAAP Authority to Commercial Financing

On July 27, 2023, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation issued an interagency

Continue Reading Federal Banking Agencies Propose New Rules to Strengthen Capital Requirements for Large Banks

On July 7, 2023, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) issued a Request for Information

Continue Reading CFPB Teams with HHS and Treasury to Examine Medical Financial Products

On June 15, 2023, Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo signed SB 290, establishing the nation’s first state licensing regime for earned wage access (EWA) services provided to consumers in the

Continue Reading Nevada Enacts Nation’s First State Licensing Regime for Earned Wage Access Services

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently released its Spring 2023 rulemaking agenda. The agenda includes a new rulemaking that did not appear on the Fall 2022 agenda—a rule

Continue Reading CFPB Intends to Supervise and Examine Consumer Payments Companies

On April 25, 2023, four federal agencies, the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and

Continue Reading CFPB and Federal Partners Take Aim at Technology Marketed as Artificial Intelligence