MVA White Collar Defense, Investigations, and Regulatory Advice Blog

When following supervisory scrutiny of fees charged to bank customers, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) activities are often the focus. The Minnesota Bankers Association and Lake Central Bank of Minnesota, however, have recently filed a lawsuit against the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and Martin Gruenberg (in his capacity as the FDIC’s Chairman) seeking, among other things, declaratory and injunctive relief from the FDIC’s application or enforcement of its recent supervisory guidance on non-sufficient funds (NSF) fees (the ...

Moore & Van Allen (MVA) Employment & Labor Associate Kyle Jacob and Litigation Member Jim McLoughlin’s article titled, “Supreme Court dramatically expands scope of state court jurisdiction over businesses” was published by Westlaw on July 25.

The article

A new 5-4 decision from the U.S. Supreme Court holding registration to do business in a state is sufficient for personal jurisdiction even if the subject of the lawsuit has no connection to the state will have far reaching effects on the ability of consumers, employees, and others to sue businesses outside of their home ...

Moore & Van Allen (MVA) Litigation Members Tanisha Palvia and Jim McLoughlin’s article titled, “The Fourth Circuit Has the Most Liberal Rule 33 Interpretation” was published by Bloomberg Law on July 18. Tanisha and Jim McLoughlin analyze the Rule 33 standard, the path to the Supreme Court for this important circuit split, and its potential impact on criminal cases.

To read the full article, please click here.

On June 28, the CFBP released a set of FAQ’s on the CFPB’s recently finalized Small Business Lending Rule (“Section 1071”). There are twenty-one questions covering matters under “Institutional Coverage” and “Covered Credit Transactions and Small Businesses”. The FAQs are particularly helpful when considering short-term loans, affiliation considerations, and extensions of credit to individuals that may be in-scope for Section 1071.

On June 1, six Federal financial regulatory agencies[1] (Agencies) jointly issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (the Proposed Rule) requiring the implementation of quality control standards for the use of automated valuation models (AVMs) to estimate the value of real estate. The standards would apply to AVMs used by mortgage originators and secondary market issuers in determining the collateral value of a mortgage secured by a consumer’s principal dwelling. The rulemaking was required by Section 1473(q) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act ...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued releases in May and June that reflected their continued focus on consumer protection issues associated with both bank fees and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) by financial institutions. On May 10, 2023, the CFPB issued Circular 2023-02 (the Circular) advising that a financial institution’s unilateral reopening of a deposit account to process a debit or deposit received after account closure can constitute an unfair act or practice under the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA). On June 6, 2023, the CFPB ...

Moore & Van Allen (MVA) Members John Fagg and Jim McLoughlin, both Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators and Chambers-ranked practitioners, recently provided commentary to Lawdragon regarding the White Collar Enforcement Under the Biden Administration. They provided their take on the Administration’s enforcement efforts so far, and what might be coming down the pipeline as the Biden Administration follows through on campaign promises to pursue more white collar criminal cases. Federal prosecutors have been pursuing COVID-related frauds, giving ...

Executive Summary

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (the “CFPB”) has published a final rule implementing the requirements of Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act (the “Final Rule”), which mandated data collection on certain credit applications to facilitate enforcement of fair lending laws and the identification of business and community development needs and opportunities for women-owned, minority-owned, and Small Businesses. Section 1071 directed the CFPB to implement rules necessary to carry out, enforce, and compile these data collection ...

The Federal Reserve Board (“FRB”) rarely issues denials for applicants to become members of the Federal Reserve System. Senator Elizabeth Warren has even criticized the FRB for their number of approvals – although in the context of bank mergers. Last Friday Custodia Bank (state chartered in Wyoming) received such a denial. Custodia Bank was formed to be “a compliant bridge between digital assets and the U.S. dollar payments system” and a digital asset custodian.

One of the difficulties digital asset companies, like Custodia Bank, have faced is being able to access the ...

In December 2021, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (or the “CFPB”) issued a notice and request for comment (the “Notice”) on its intention to make a preemption determination regarding the Truth in Lending Act (“TILA”) and the State of New York’s Commercial Financing Law, which imposes disclosure requirements on certain commercial lending transactions (the “New York CFL”). The preemption determination had been requested by the Small Business Finance Association (the “SBFA”), a non-profit advocacy organization for its members who provide ...