2016 – Page 2 – Consumer Financial Services Watch

Cracking the Code: Cybersecurity for Tomorrow

Oct 31 2016

Please join K&L Gates and Carnegie Mellon University for a complimentary one-day program focusing on the prevention of, response to and investigation of cyber threats.

Date/time: Thursday, November 10, 8:00 am – 5:15 pm

Location: This event will be presented live at K&L Gates Pittsburgh and video broadcast to K&L Gates offices in Boston, Charleston, Charlotte, Harrisburg, Newark, New York, Raleigh, Research Triangle Park, and Washington, D.C.

Click here for more information and registration details.

The future of Fintech event, San Francisco, 1 November

Oct 28 2016

K&L Gates will be co-hosting an event with the Silicon Vikings in San Francisco on Tuesday November 1st. This will be a panel session with presenting companies including: Checkbook, bitwage, StratiFi and Qwil. An event not to be missed.

The panel will include:

Sanjiv Das, Professor of Finance, Santa Clara University
Jacob Sisk, VP Payments & Data Science, CapitalOne
Tyler He, Business Development, Tencent
Moderator & Event Chair: Shikhar Das, Assistera

Details of the event:

Date/time: Tuesday, November 1st, 6.00 pm – 8.30 pm
Location: K&L Gates, 4 Embarcadero Center, Suite 1200, San Francisco, CA 94103 (google maps)
Register: Click here for more details or to register to attend

For any queries, please contact K&L Gates partner, Lars Johansson.

Webinar: CFPB Final Rule on Prepaid Accounts: The Rules and Their Short and Long Term Impacts

Oct 19 2016

Please join us for a webinar on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (“CFPB”) final rule (the “Rule”) on prepaid accounts.

The webinar will:
• Review the Final Rule in detail.
• Note industry responses to the Rule.
• Make projections regarding its short and long term impacts.

Panelists:
Linda C. Odom, Partner, K&L Gates
Judith E. Rinearson, Partner, K&L Gates
Jennifer L. Crowder, Counsel, K&L Gates
Eric A. Love, Law Clerk, K&L Gates
Ernest L. Simons, Associate, K&L Gates
Tyler Kirk, Associate, K&L Gates

To register, click here. Log-in instructions will be sent via email the day before the webinar. You must register to receive the log-in instructions.

“Not A Close Call”: The D.C. Circuit Restores The Safe Harbor To Section 8 of RESPA

Oct 12 2016

By Irene C. Freidel

Noting that “[t]he basic statutory question in this case is not a close call,” the D.C. Circuit has held that a bona fide payment by one settlement service provider to another does not violate Section 8(a) of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) if the payment is reasonably related to the market value of the goods, services, or facilities provided. See PHH Corp. v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (D.C. Cir. Oct. 11, 2016). The court’s conclusion was mandated by the unambiguous text of Section 8(c) of RESPA, along with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD’s) long-standing interpretations of the same statutory provision.

To read the full alert, click here.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Calls for Modernizing the TCPA

Sep 28 2016

By Pamela Garvie, Andrew Glass, Greg Blase, Peter Nelson and Elana Reman

On September 22, 2016 the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications and Technology held a hearing on modernizing the TCPA. The hearing is significant because it marks the first time that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have said the TCPA needs to be updated to reflect changing technology and business practices, and to draw a distinction between “harassing, malicious” calls from “bad actors” and “legitimate, informational calls that consumers want.” Republican members of the Subcommittee have raised concerns about the TCPA during past FCC oversight hearings, but this hearing actually was held at the request of full Committee Ranking Democrat Member Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ), Subcommittee Ranking Democrat Anna Eshoo (D-CA), and Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-IL).

The Eighth Circuit Charts a Course for Data Privacy Cases in the Wake of Spokeo for Technical Violations of a Statute That Result in no Harm

Sep 19 2016

By Ryan M. Tosi and Lindsay Sampson Bishop

The Eighth Circuit recently became the one of the first federal Courts of Appeals to apply the U.S. Supreme Court’s Article III standing decision in Spokeo Inc. v. Robins to a data privacy case. The Eighth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a putative class action complaint on the basis that the plaintiff failed to allege a concrete injury that “actually exist[s],” is “real,” and is not “abstract.” The lawsuit alleged that Charter Communications, Inc. (“Charter”), a company providing cable services, retained the personally identifiable information (“PII”) of its former customers well after the customers’ cancellation of their services. Because the plaintiff asserted only a technical violation of the statute, without alleging how that violation had actually injured him, the Eighth Circuit found that, under Spokeo, the plaintiff failed to plead a concrete and particularized injury sufficient to establish standing to file suit in federal court.

To read the full alert, click here.

Inclusive Communities Excluded from Court—Plaintiff Can’t Meet Supreme Court Standard for Disparate-Impact Claims under the Fair Housing Act

Sep 12 2016

By Paul F. Hancock, Andrew C. Glass, Olivia Kelman, and Joshua Butera

K&L Gates LLP previously observed that the U.S. Supreme Court’s recognition of disparate-impact claims under the Fair Housing Act in Texas Department of Housing & Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities Project, Inc. had a “silver lining.” In particular, the Supreme Court identified that a plaintiff must meet a rigorous standard to establish a prima facie case of disparate-impact discrimination under the Fair Housing Act. On remand, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas applied that standard, holding that the plaintiff fell far short of meeting the Supreme Court’s “proof regimen” necessary to sustain a disparate-impact claim. The district court’s decision reaffirms that, in interpreting the Supreme Court’s decision properly, a Fair Housing Act plaintiff proceeding under a disparate-impact theory faces a significant burden.

To read the full alert, click here.

Who Bears the Risk? Federal Court Holds That a Purchaser of Unsecured Consumer Loans Is the “True Lender,” Voiding Enforceability of the Loans

Sep 07 2016

By Irene C. Freidel and David D. Christensen

A California federal court has held that the purchaser of small-dollar consumer loans is the “true lender” and thus subject to state usury laws, even though a separate tribal entity funded and closed the loans in its own name. See Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. CashCall, Inc*. The court’s holding, which adopts the arguments of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) and renders the loans serviced by CashCall unenforceable, challenges the business model that many marketplace lending platforms use to offer alternative, unsecured loans to consumers. Generally speaking, partnerships between marketplace platforms and tribal entities, state-chartered (and federally insured) banks, or national banks are intended to protect the platforms from the substantial licensing and compliance burden of state lending and licensing laws, and also to permit loans that might otherwise exceed the borrower’s home state usury limit. The recent CashCall decision, however, is another reminder that state and federal regulators, as well as plaintiffs’ attorneys, may be able to pierce these partnerships where a court finds that the financial institution funding and closing the loan does not bear substantial risk on those loans.

Webinar: Developments in Student Loan Servicing with Lessons Learned from Mortgage Servicing

Aug 31 2016

Please join us for a webinar on student loan servicing covering a wide range of developments in regulatory, enforcement and litigation as well as the practical application of lessons learned in parallel servicing industries.

Panelists:
David E. Fialkow, Partner, K&L Gates
Hollee M. Watson, Associate, K&L Gates

To register, click here. Log-in instructions will be sent via email the day before the webinar. You must register to receive the log-in instructions.

Change Order: The CFPB Previews Its Proposed FDCPA Regulations

Aug 10 2016

By Andrew C. Glass, Brian M. Forbes, Gregory N. Blase, and Roger L. Smerage

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) recently took the next step toward promulgating regulations under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”) by releasing its “Outline of Proposals under Consideration and Alternatives Considered” (the “Outline”). The Outline sheds light on the approach the CFPB may take in regulating the debt-collection industry. As detailed in this alert, the proposed approach would implement comprehensive and substantial changes.

To read the full alert, click here.

Archive:2016