Under the leadership of its new Director, Rohit Chopra, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) appears poised to take a more active supervisory and enforcement posture, including with respect to Fintech – a sector that has not historically been a focus for the agency.  Since taking office on October 12th, Director Chopra has made various public statements indicating concerns about the growing role of technology companies in providing financial services to consumers.  To that end, his first official action was a sweeping information request issued to large tech firms that offer payments products, seeking information about, among other things, data privacy and security practices.  Although it is not clear what actions the CFPB may take, there is no doubt that Fintech is in the agency’s crosshairs like never before.

 

For more information, please visit Perkins Coie’s White Collar & Investigations Blog, White Collar Briefly.

Weekly Fintech Focus

  • Acting Comptroller of the Currency gave a speech describing his vision for supervising crypto and fintech firms in similar ways to banks.
  • The FTC issued enforcement policy guidance related to subscriptions and negative option marketing to tighten compliance.
  • The FTC issued a final rule amending the GLBA Safeguards Rule to cover “finders” and to significantly increase certain requirements for financial institution security requirements.

Continue Reading Fintech Legal Report—Week of November 5, 2021

Weekly Fintech Focus

  • Senators seek information about the CFPB’s agenda for fintech
  • OCC’s Acting Comptroller testifies before the Senate
  • Financial regulators updated guidance on authentication and access to services
  • FTC supports Fed’s efforts to update Regulation II to improve compliance with dual debit network availability
  • OFAC takes action against a payments company for sanctions violations
  • CFPB blogs on consumer benefits and risks of Buy-Now, Pay-Later
  • FINRA issues a report addressing cloud computing adoption by member firms
  • BIS issues a bulletin encouraging entity-based regulation of Big Tech companies

Continue Reading Fintech Legal Report—Week of August 27

Weekly Fintech Focus

  • President Biden issues an executive order on competition with implications on open banking, UDAAP enforcement, and pricing disclosures.
  • Federal banking regulators seeking to standardize guidance on third-party risk management, seek public comment.
  • FFIEC updates and expands the Operations Booklet of its IT Examination Handbook to address technology risk management expectations for cloud computing and other evolving technologies.
  • FinCEN issues a list of AML priorities as well as considers engaging in a no-action letter process.
  • Colorado becomes the latest state to repeal its ban on credit card surcharges.
  • President Biden signs Congressional Review Act resolution rescinding OCC’s True Lender Rule—now what?

Continue Reading Fintech Legal Report—Week of July 16

Weekly Fintech Focus

  • A buy-now pay-later company faces a potential class action alleging it hid the risk of overdraft and NSF fees from its users.
  • Leaders of the CFPB’s Fair Lending Office published an article encouraging the use of special purpose credit programs to effect racial justice.
  • The FDIC is opening applications for a tech sprint to reach the unbanked.
  • The FSB responds to comments on its recent discussion paper related to outsourcing and third-party service providers.

Continue Reading Fintech Week in Review: Week of June 25, 2021

Weekly Fintech Focus

  • Federal financial regulators extend the deadline for responding to its request for information about financial institutions’ use of AI.
  • The CFPB issued FAQs on electronic funds transfers under EFTA and Regulation E to address issues related to fraud and private network rules.
  • The Federal Reserve proposed a rule to update the Durbin Amendment/Reg. II to ensure two debit networks are available, including for card-not-present transactions.
  • The Federal Reserve proposed a rule to apply Regulation J to FedNow transactions and to establish rules for the FedNow Service.
  • CSBS seeks comment on its proposed nationwide licensing framework for MSBs.

Continue Reading Fintech Week in Review: Week of June 11, 2021