Regulatory, Enforcement and Litigation Insights on Consumer Financial and Fintech Issues
On April 23, 2020, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) filed its opening brief defending its special purpose fintech charter in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
The special-purpose charter, initially proposed by former Comptroller Thomas Curry in December 2016, would permit vetted non-depository fintech companies to operate under…
Fintech companies Intuit, PayPal and Square have officially been approved to participate in the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) $349 billion Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which was enacted as part of the CARES Act last month. To recap, the PPP provides aid in the form of potentially forgivable loans to eligible small businesses, which loans…
The latest regulations coupled with the Treasury Department guidance have left many scratching their heads as to whether fintech companies will be able to provide small business loans under the recently enacted Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a crucial part of the U.S. legislature’s latest attempts to address the serious economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. …
On March 18, 2020, Square Inc., became the first U.S. fintech company to receive conditional approval of an Industrial Loan Company (“ILC”) charter from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”), to pair with its prior charter approval on March 17, 2020 from the Utah Department of Financial Institutions. It became the first new de novo…
For the first time, a U.S. fintech company is acquiring a regulated U.S. bank, which will give it access to a stable and cheaper source of funding – as well as a national bank charter.
On February 18th, LendingClub, one of the largest providers of personal loans in the U.S., announced that it…
California and New York are taking the lead to expand consumer financial protection, in part to smooth out the ebb and flow of federal policy and enforcement at the CFPB. Within a few days of each other, Governor Gavin Newsom of California and Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York announced proposals to expand regulatory oversight…
On January 7, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) released its 2020 examination priorities. OCIE is prioritizing practices, products, and services that it believes present heightened risks to investors or market integrity. The examination priorities are organized around seven themes, many of which build on OCIE’s priorities…
On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider the constitutionality of the Dodd-Frank Act law that prohibits the President from removing a CFPB Director except for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance” — the so-called “for cause” restriction (see 12 U.S.C. §5491(c)(c)). The Court’s decision to address this restriction, which the CFPB…
On Tuesday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“Bureau”) published a revised No Action Letter (“NAL”) policy aimed at offering financial innovators an avenue for obtaining more regulatory certainty before introducing new products and services. The Bureau paired its release of the revised NAL policy with an announcement of two new, related policies: one aimed at…
On Monday, July 8th, FINRA and the SEC took the unusual step of issuing a joint statement on broker-dealer custody of digital asset securities. In doing so, the Staffs of the SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets and of FINRA’s Office of General Counsel made clear that the SEC and FINRA will continue…
