Archive

On March 29, 2016, U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in the case of Abigail Strubel, Plaintiff v Capital One Bank. N.A., Defendant granted summary judgment against a putative class action alleging that the Garamond LC font used by Capital One Bank in its credit card applications was not “clear and conspicuous” as required by the Truth in Lending Act. The plaintiffs argued that the commentary provided by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) indicated that no […]

“For the rest of this year and the next, our rulemaking agenda at the Consumer Bureau will remain quite active.” Director Richard Cordray recently stated. So what can we expect to see from the CFPB? The agency is working on new or revised rules for: Overdraft fees, including the opt-in process for overdraft coverage of electronic transactions; Collection and publication of data on small business lending (The Dodd-Frank Act required final rules by July 21, […]

The CFPB has been criticized for providing guidance in the form of enforcement actions rather by writing regulations. Expect more of the same. In a March 9, 2016 speech Director Cordray confirmed that consent orders that accompany the Bureau’s public enforcement actions, “provide detailed guidance for compliance officers across the marketplace about how they should regard similar practices at their own institutions. If the same problems exist in their day-to-day operations, they should look closely […]

Once again, the CFPB has waited until the eleventh hour to issue an interim final rule that many community bankers worked countless hours to prepare for!  On Tuesday, March 22, 2016, the Bureau released the interim final rule to amend Regulation Z and implement provisions that many banks would have appreciated months ago. The interim final rule will implement Congress’s intent to expand the number of small creditors eligible to meet the special provisions under […]

We have received numerous reports that realtors involved in purchase transactions are requesting (demanding) copies of the borrower’s closing statement. Some realtors have included language (see sample below) in the purchase contract to ensure they receive the closing disclosure.  “All parties to this transaction, including buyers, sellers, real estate agents, lender, and closing agents acknowledge that the TRID Closing Disclosure, the Buyers Statement, the Sellers Statement, or any other summary form of the transaction does […]