Below is a summary of some of the significant legal and regulatory actions that occurred over the past week. This alert is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all such developments, but rather a selection of publicly-reported news that may be of particular interest.

U.S. Developments

Class Action to Proceed in Fair Debt Collection Practices Suit Against Midland
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York is permitting a class action lawsuit to proceed involving allegations that Midland Funding, LLC (Midland) violated state usury laws in its debt collection practices. Midland had claimed that, since the original debt agreement contained Delaware choice-of-law provisions, and since the debtor had defaulted on the obligations, New York’s criminal usury interest rate cap of 25% should not apply to Midland’s collection of the debt – notwithstanding that the debtor lived in New York. In certifying two classes of plaintiffs which could cover as many as 50,000 residents of New York, the U.S. District Court disagreed with Midland and concluded that the court should apply New York law pursuant to New York’s common law choice of law rule and that the New York criminal usury cap of 25% applies to defaulted obligations. A scheduling conference regarding further proceedings took place on March 8, and the Opinion and Order can be found here.
Continue Reading Fintech Week in Review – March 10, 2017