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Category Archives: Financial Institution Regulation

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Enforcement and Prosecution Policy and Trends, Financial Institution Regulation

Beware What You Share: Privilege Waiver Risks in Investigations

In responding to regulatory and government investigations, firms are often faced with the question of how to balance the desire to cooperate with the need to preserve privilege over an internal investigation.  Financial institutions face this question additionally in their reporting requirements to regulators, including Form U-5 filings and Suspicious Activity Reports.  Two recent decisions… Continue Reading
Compliance, Financial Institution Regulation

CFPB Announces Intent to Reconsider Disclosure Rule

On December 21, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a public statement regarding implementation of the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA), noting that it plans to reconsider aspects of the mortgage data rule. The HMDA, enacted in 1975, requires many lenders to report information concerning applications they receive for particular mortgage loans and… Continue Reading
Enforcement and Prosecution Policy and Trends, Financial Institution Regulation, Securities and Commodities, Uncategorized

SEC Approves New PCAOB Standard

Recently, the SEC approved the PCAOB’s new auditor reporting standard, AS 3101, The Auditor’s Report on an Audit of Financial Statements When the Auditor Expresses an Unqualified Opinion. Hailed as the most significant change to the auditor report’s format in over 70 years, AS 3101 significantly changes the format of the existing auditor’s report, arming… Continue Reading
Financial Institution Regulation

The New CFPB Consumer Protection Principles

This post originally appeared in our sister publication, Password Protected. On October 18, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a set of Consumer Protection Principles regarding the sharing and aggregation of consumers’ financial data. The timing of the announcement in light of last month’s disclosure of the Equifax breach of approximately 140 million… Continue Reading
Financial Institution Regulation

Treasury Department Recommends Broad Reforms to CFPB

The Department of the Treasury recently cited the CFPB’s “unaccountable structure and unduly broad regulatory powers,” in suggesting reforms to address the CFPB’s “regulatory abuses and excesses.” The Department’s recommendations were made as a part of its report, A Financial System that Creates Economic Opportunities: Bank and Credit Unions, issued in response to President Trump’s… Continue Reading
Compliance, Financial Institution Regulation

CFPB Provides Updated Guidance Related to Loan Forgiveness Program

On Thursday, June 22, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) provided updated guidance for supervisory examinations of student loan servicers.  Richard Cordray, the Director of the CFPB, gave prepared remarks in Washington D.C.  He explained his concerns related to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and how certain practices may be delaying or denying… Continue Reading
Compliance, Enforcement and Prosecution Policy and Trends, Financial Institution Regulation, Uncategorized

Proposed Rules Aimed at High-Risk Brokers Confirm FINRA Push for Firms to “Do Their Part”

Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) President and CEO Robert Cook spoke earlier this month at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, where he outlined several proposals to further what he called one of FINRA’s “most important purposes”—“to protect investors from bad actors.”  Taking aim at “those who seek to evade regulatory requirements and harm investors… Continue Reading
Financial Institution Regulation, Securities and Commodities

FINRA President and CEO Robert Cook discusses FINRA360 and Consolidating Enforcement Divisions

On May 17, 2017, at the annual FINRA conference in Washington D.C., FINRA President and CEO Robert Cook discussed the recently-launched FINRA360 initiative: a top-to-bottom review of FINRA’s operations and organization.  Cook recognized that 2017 marks FINRA’s  ten-year anniversary since its “successful” but “complicated” merger of the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) and the… Continue Reading
Financial Institution Regulation

CFPB Fails to State Case Against Payment Processor

The United States District Court for the District of North Dakota recently dismissed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) complaint against a payment processor, Intercept, in a case McGuireWoods has been monitoring.  The Court held that the CFPB failed to adequately plead an unfair, deceptive, or abusive act or practice under the Consumer Financial Protection… Continue Reading
Enforcement and Prosecution Policy and Trends, Financial Institution Regulation, Fraud, Deception and False Claims

Will 2017 Be the Year of Insider Trading Reform?

For several years running, insider trading has been among the most high-profile enforcement priorities for both DOJ and the SEC. Unlike most federal criminal law, insider trading remains undefined by statute, having instead been largely judge-made. Unsurprisingly, since the explosion of enforcement actions began, prosecutors and defendants have both pushed the courts to clarify (or… Continue Reading
Financial Institution Regulation

D.C. Circuit Grants Rehearing in PHH Case

On Thursday, February 16, 2017, the D.C. Circuit granted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) petition for rehearing en banc in PHH Corporation v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.  The Order marks the latest twist in a case that tests the constitutional and statutory limits of the CFPB. As we previously reported, in 2014 an Administrative… Continue Reading
Financial Institution Regulation

Pending Senate Bill Would Restructure CFPB Leadership

On January 11, 2017, a trio of Republican Senators introduced a bill that would change the leadership structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) from a single director to a five-member bipartisan “Board of Directors.” Senate Bill 105, titled “Consumer Financial Protection Board Act of 2017,” introduced by Senators Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), Ron Johnson… Continue Reading
Financial Institution Regulation

Trump Signals Beginning of Efforts to Curtail Dodd-Frank

On February 3, President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order that signaled the beginning of the Trump Administration’s efforts to dismantle parts of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank”).  The executive order, entitled Core Principles for Regulating the United States Financial System (“Order”), lays out seven core principles (“Core Principles”)… Continue Reading
Financial Institution Regulation

CFPB Again Challenges Meaningful Attorney Involvement

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has entered into its latest consent order targeting consumer debt collection law firms.  Once again, the CFPB challenges the lack of “meaningful attorney involvement” it deems required in collection actions. This latest consent order was entered into by two Oklahoma medical debt collection law firms and their president (“Respondents”). … Continue Reading
Financial Institution Regulation

The Forgotten Face of Student Lending

Mention student loans and the face that comes immediately to mind is probably someone in their early twenties. A recent report from the CFPB sheds light on an overlooked segment of the student loan population – consumers 60 years old and older. The number of older student loan borrowers has skyrocketed in recent years. The… Continue Reading
Compliance, Financial Institution Regulation

CFPB’s 2017 Fair Lending Priorities

The CFPB recently issued its Fair Lending Priorities for 2017.  According to its December blog post, the CFPB plans to increase its focus on the following three areas, which it describes as “presenting a substantial risk of credit discrimination for consumers.” Redlining: The CFPB “will continue to evaluate whether lenders have intentionally avoided lending in… Continue Reading
Financial Institution Regulation

GOP Takes Aim at Dodd-Frank

On Friday, January 20, 2017, Donald J. Trump will become the President of the United States, and for the first time in nearly a decade, a single party will control the Presidency, the House, and the Senate. After years of deadlock, Republicans are prepared to use this consolidation of power to move their legislative agenda… Continue Reading
Compliance, Enforcement and Prosecution Policy and Trends, Financial Institution Regulation

Companies Challenge CFPB’s Authority to Issue Civil Investigative Demands

As any company that has received a civil investigative demand (CID) from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) knows, the Bureau’s authority to issue CIDs is a powerful tool that leaves recipients with limited options to challenge or limit their compliance obligations.  Recently, the CFPB has fought back against CID challenges, asking two federal district… Continue Reading
Financial Institution Regulation

CFPB Report Highlights Continued Focus on Mortgage Redlining

In its Fall 2016 Supervisory Highlights report, issued October 31, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) identified mortgage redlining as an ongoing “priority area” in the Bureau’s supervisory work.  In the mortgage industry, “redlining” is a form of disparate treatment where a lender provides unequal access to credit, or unequal terms of credit, on the… Continue Reading
Compliance, Enforcement and Prosecution Policy and Trends, Financial Institution Regulation

The Yates Memo and Individual Representation

At the November 2, 2016 Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (“SIFMA”) Compliance and Legal Society Regional Seminar in New York, a SIFMA panel discussed the “Yates Memo,” its effect on internal investigations, and considerations regarding individual representation. The Yates Memo is a September 9, 2015 memorandum issued by Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates to… Continue Reading
Compliance, Financial Institution Regulation

Tuesday’s GOP Wins May Put the Brakes on the CFPB’s Controversial Oversight of Auto Lending

The CFPB’s imposition of its auto lending guidelines, and use of its admittedly flawed proxy-methodology to determine discriminatory lending in auto finance, may come to an end under the GOP controlled White House and Senate. The CFPB’s current guidance, published in a March 2013 Bulletin, has been largely criticized as limiting competition and increasing interest… Continue Reading

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