Legal issues and news

A Texas judge dealt the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau a setback that has changed the bureau's calculus for furthering its near-term agenda. But an ambitious Supreme Court could also call all of the bureau's final rules into question.

Two bank trade groups have asked the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to relieve all banks from complying with its small-business lending rule until after the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether the bureau's funding is constitutional.

In 18 states, consumers are not allowed to use trained debt resolution professionals to seek relief from their creditors. That needs to change.

A federal judge has temporarily stopped the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from implementing its small-business data collection rule until after the Supreme Court rules next year on whether the bureau's funding is constitutional.

U.S. financial institutions should look to the U.K. for tips on fighting real-time payments fraud.

The U.S. government wants to intervene in JPMorgan Chase's fraud lawsuit against Frank founder Charlie Javice, asking a federal judge to halt pretrial information exchanges until she has been tried on criminal charges. 

Greenwood Financial and The Gathering Spot, a network of private clubs for the Black community, say they have reached an agreement after six months of lawsuits.

JPMorgan Chase, Barclays, Citigroup and others will face a class-action suit over allegations of foreign exchange manipulation. 

The Minnesota Bankers Association and Lake Central Bank jointly filed a lawsuit against the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. over its nonsufficient funds fee rules' inclusion of "unfair or deceptive acts or practices" violations in its policy.

The group of banks would pay $68 million to settle the lawsuit, which originally estimated damages at $340 million.

Republicans have urged the Supreme Court to gut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau by tying its funding to appropriations. But regulatory experts say that a ruling against the CFPB would threaten the funding of other similarly structured agencies including the Federal Reserve Board, the Farm Credit System and other regulators that are funded through fees or assessments.

The Supreme Court's ruling on affirmative action in higher education has opened the door to challenges of diversity initiatives in the financial services sector, legal experts say. Internship programs for minority students could face scrutiny, as could efforts to increase workforce diversity.

The lawsuit against Prehired involves a relatively new product that consumer advocates say is akin to a student loan — and should be subject to far more protections.

With no settlement in sight, Spencer Savings Bank's case against a group of former depositors it says conspired with Larry Seidman to force a conversion appears headed for a courtroom battle.

Gacki, who has served since 2019 as director of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, will replace acting Fincen Director Himamauli Das. Her appointment comes as the Biden administration seeks to enforce sanctions against Russia and implement rules aimed at identifying undisclosed shell company owners.

The plaintiff that brought the case on behalf of the state says the banks inflated interest rates through a private, invitation-only VRDO index that influenced SIFMA's weekly index.

Management, in exchange, has agreed to assist company lawyers in potentially lucrative actions against firms they blame for BlockFi's collapse including FTX and failed crypto hedge-fund Three Arrows Capital.

In an amicus brief submitted to the Supreme Court Tuesday, the bicameral group of 132 Republican members of Congress argued that an appeals court was right to rule last year that the Bureau's funding system is unlawful.

Mass arbitration is a fact of life in modern consumer finance litigation. Those hoping it will go away through court decisions or legislative change are primed to be sorely disappointed.

Some of the biggest banks on Wall Street are expected to go to trial in Illinois next month to face allegations they inflated interest rates on bonds to finance public works.