In early August 2020, several state attorneys general filed suit against the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) challenging the OCC’s proposed “Madden Fix.” Notably, while the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) also issued their own Madden Fix, the agency was not named as a defendant in the initial lawsuit. As such,
FinTech
State Attorneys General Challenge OCC Madden Fix
Last Wednesday, the attorneys general of Illinois, California, and New York filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California challenging the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s proposed “Madden Fix.” This proposed rule, which we have discussed in detail, is designed to resolve some of the…
OCC Proposes Clarification to True Lender Doctrine
Earlier this week, the OCC released a proposed rule designed to address the “true lender” doctrine, a legal test utilized by courts and regulators to determine whether a bank or its non-bank partner is the actual lender in a credit transaction. This doctrine has led to uncertainty in the fintech and bank-partnership spaces, in large…
OCC, FDIC Issue Long-Awaited Valid-When-Made “Madden Fix”
Recently, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) issued final rules designed to resolve the uncertainty created by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in Madden v. Midland Funding, 786 F.3d 246 (2d Cir. 2015). In Madden, the court called into doubt…
California’s Proposed “Mini-CFPB” May Increase Scrutiny of Auto Lenders and Other Industry Participants
Earlier this month, California Gov. Gavin Newsom revealed plans to create a state version of the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) as part of the state’s proposed 2020-2021 budget. According to the governor’s Budget Summary, “[t]he federal government’s rollback of the CFPB leaves Californians vulnerable to predatory businesses and leaves companies without the…
The CFPB (Yes, the CFPB!) Offers New Compliance Tools for Innovation
Companies that offer innovative consumer financial products and services have new tools to help them stay in compliance with federal consumer financial laws. In a refreshing twist from prior policy, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced last week that it had revamped its No-Action Letter Policy and released a Compliance Assistance Sandbox and a…
California’s Bot Transparency Law Goes into Effect on July 1, 2019
California wants to ensure that consumers know what they are talking to.
On July 1, 2019, California’s new bot disclosure law will take effect, requiring bots to be upfront about their inhumanity. The law prohibits bots from communicating with a person in California with the intent to mislead as to their artificial identity for the…
First Federal Legislation Proposed Relating to Protection of Biometrics
Amidst privacy concerns and booming technological innovation, Sens. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) have introduced a bill proposed as the “Commercial Facial Recognition Privacy Act of 2019” (CFRPA) targeting arguably the most “personal” biometric identifier—our face. While several states have enacted legislation relating to protection of biometric identifiers, this is the…
Cryptocurrencies: Currency, Commodity, Security or Something Else?
Courts and regulators continue to struggle with how to define cryptocurrencies. The latest installment of this ongoing debate came from an unlikely source: a state appellate court’s opinion on a criminal matter. Specifically, on January 30, 2019, the Third District Court of Appeal for the State of Florida entered an order reversing a trial court’s…
HUD and DOJ Challenge Facebook’s Advertising Platforms under the Fair Housing Act
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has filed an administrative complaint against Facebook alleging discriminatory advertising in violation of the Fair Housing Act (FHA). HUD alleges that housing advertisers can use Facebook’s advertising tools and algorithms to exclude applicants based on protected categories such as race, sex, or national origin. Four days…