In a significant development, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has ordered Toyota Motor Credit Corporation to pay $60 million in consumer redress and penalties… Read More »Toyota Motor Credit Ordered to Pay for Illegal Lending and Credit Reporting Misconduct
Every year, the nationwide consumer reporting agencies (NCRAs)—Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion- receive tens of thousands of complaints regarding incorrect information on consumer credit reports. And,… Read More »Credit Report Disputes: Consumers Left Behind
The COVID-19 pandemic caused widespread uncertainty among consumers, and many families were forced to make hard decisions about how to allocate their resources. Unfortunately, amidst… Read More »CFPB Enforcement Actions in 2022
2020 was a tough year for governments and consumers alike. In a year full of difficulties in all walks of life, it’s no surprise that… Read More »Credit Report Attorney: The Fallout of 2020
Ocwen is amongst the largest mortgage servicers in the country. It holds mortgage debts with a face value more than $400 billion. Ocwen specializes in “default” servicing – meaning that it services loans where the consumer is behind. On April 20th & 21st, state and federal regulators took a range of legal actions against Ocwen… Read More »Recent Enforcement Actions Against Ocwen
In a time of limited resources, perhaps a new model is emerging of joint CFPB/State Attorney General enforcement actions. The 2015 joint action by the Bureau and Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh provides a nice case study. In 2015, Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau took an action against a… Read More »Joint Enfocement Action: Maryland Attorney General and CFPB Act On Illegal Mortgage Kickbacks
The two largest debt buyers in the US, Encore Capital Group (owner of Midland Funding, LLC) and Portfolio Recovery Associates spoke with officials at the CFPB for over a year, a fact repeatedly mentioned by Encore and PRA in calls with their investors. In September, the results of those talks were announced by the CFPB.
Read More »Encore and Portfolio Fined By CFPBA proposed Consent Order has been filed in the CFPB’s enforcement action against Frederick J. Hanna Associates. This was the first enforcement action by the CFPB directly against a collection law firm and was the subject of a vigorous defense by Hanna and much comment in the trade press. Hanna lost its motion to dismiss in July 2015, made an unsuccessful motion for an interlocutory appeal and discovery was ordered to proceed.
The case attracted a lot of attention: from the Wall Street Journal to trade publication InsideARM which said that “[t]he case should be front and center for all law firms practicing in this space“. In light of the excitement about the case, the bottom line of the Consent Order is, rather disappointing: Hanna is to pay $3.1 million in penalties to the CFPB and agrees to injunctive relief(all without admitting any of the CFPB’s allegations). There is no relief for consumers targeted by Hanna – that is presumably left to private law suits.
Read More »Frederick J. Hanna Associates To Pay $3.1 Million And Stop Filing Suits Without ProofThe New York Times has published a three-part in depth series (1, 2, 3) on forced arbitration, in the wake the CFPB’s proposal to prohibit class action waivers through arbitration. The Times series covers many of the familiar problems with arbitration: the pressures on arbitrators to please the companies which select them, the denial of… Read More »Groundbreaking New York Times Series on the Abuses of Forced Arbitration
A few years ago, Encore Capital, the parent of debt buyer Midland Funding, LLC started spreading money around overseas, mostly notably with the acquisition of Cabot, a debt-buyer in the United Kingdom. It’s most recent quarterly call with investors (transcript available here, signup required) paints an interesting picture of its ever-expanding global reach. The call… Read More »Encore Capital: Growing Foreign Profits
