Like most industries right this moment, Consumer Finance Services companies proceed to be considerably impacted by COVID-19. To assist you hold abreast of related actions, beneath discover a breakdown of a few of the greatest legislative and regulatory occasions on the federal and state ranges to impression the Consumer Finance Services trade this previous week:

Federal Activities

State Activities

Privacy and Cybersecurity Activities

Federal Activities:

  • On June 30, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) launched its Semiannual Risk Perspective for Spring 2022, which features a dialogue of dangers and solutions for banks to contemplate on distributed ledger applied sciences and digital belongings. For extra info, click on here.

  • On June 27, the Federal Reserve Board introduced the ultimate timeline and implementation particulars to undertake the International Organization for Standardization’s (ISO) 20022 message format for its Fedwire Funds Service. The Federal Reserve Board prolonged the implementation timeframe from a goal date of November 2023 to March 10, 2025. For extra info, click on here.

  • On June 29, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued an advisory opinion, affirming that federal legislation typically prohibits debt collectors from charging “convenience fees” for some funds when customers need to pay in a selected approach, equivalent to on-line or by telephone. For extra info, click on here.

  • On June 28, the CFPB issued an interpretive rule to state businesses, informing them that the Fair Credit Reporting Act doesn’t preempt states from enacting their very own credit score reporting legal guidelines. For extra info, click on here.

  • On June 28, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce issued a letter, highlighting what it describes as illegal regulatory overreach by the CFPB and particularly new CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. For extra info, click on here.

  • The CFPB Office of Servicemember Affairs launched its annual report, detailing over 17,000 complaints filed by servicemembers, veterans, and their households in 2021. The largest variety of complaints involved incorrect info on credit score stories; intently associated to the primary criticism was the credit score reporting businesses’ failure to reply swiftly and totally to those complaints. For extra info, click on here.

State Activities:

  • On June 30, New York Attorney General Letitia James secured $400,000 from a grocery retailer chain for exposing the private info of greater than three million customers nationwide, together with greater than 830,000 New Yorkers. According to the press launch, the grocery retailer chain “kept consumers’ personal information in misconfigured cloud storage containers that were open, making it easy for hackers or others to potentially access the information. The compromised data included usernames and passwords for [the grocery store’s customers’] accounts, as well as customers’ names, email addresses, mailing addresses, and additional data derived from drivers’ license numbers.” Following the motion, the grocery retailer chain upgraded its knowledge safety practices. For extra info, click on here.

  • The Northern District of Illinois lately granted a defendant banks’ motions to dismiss in an alleged wire fraud case, holding that the Illinois Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) preempted the plaintiff’s frequent legislation claims, the buyer fraud claims failed to fulfill R. 9(b)’s heightened pleading commonplace, and claims beneath the Electronic Funds Transfer Act did not state a declare. The holding demonstrates that as a result of UCC Article 4A governs wire transfers, plaintiffs asserting wire fraud claims are usually restricted to aid afforded beneath UCC Article 4A; claims beneath frequent legislation, shopper fraud statutes, and the EFTA usually can’t be used to impose legal responsibility on a financial institution for its function in a wire switch transaction. For extra info, click on here.

  • On June 29, California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued an alert to Californians whose individual info was disclosed in reference to the state’s Firearms Dashboard Portal. The “incident exposed the personal information of individuals who were granted or denied a concealed and carry weapons (CCW) permit between 2011-2021,” in response to the alert. “This unauthorized release of personal information is unacceptable and falls far short of my expectations for this department,” stated Attorney General Rob Bonta. “I immediately launched an investigation into how this occurred at the California Department of Justice and will take strong corrective measures where necessary.” For extra info, click on here.

  • During June, Hawaii enacted SB 2695 to create a blockchain and cryptocurrency job pressure, which is tasked with submitting a report of its findings and suggestions to the legislature. For extra info, click on here.

  • In June, Missouri’s cash laundering legislation was amended to incorporate cryptocurrency, thus making a living laundering a legal offense if an individual engages in specified monetary transactions that contain cryptocurrency. For extra info, click on here.

  • The governor of Iowa signed HF 2443 in June, which amends Iowa’s Uniform Electronic Transactions Act to delete references to distributed ledger know-how and so as to add a brand new part, addressing the authorized impact of distributed ledger know-how and sensible contracts. For extra info, click on here.

Privacy and Cybersecurity Activities:

  • On June 29, the Department of Health and Human Services (HSS) issued steerage to guard affected person privateness within the wake of the Supreme Court’s resolution in Roe. In common, the steerage does two issues: (1) addresses how federal and laws shield people’ non-public medical info (often known as protected well being info or PHI) regarding abortion and different sexual and reproductive well being care — making it clear that suppliers aren’t required to reveal non-public medical info to 3rd events; and (2) addresses the extent to which non-public medical info is protected on private cell telephones and tablets, offering tips for safeguarding people’ privateness when utilizing interval trackers and different well being info apps. To learn the total steerage, click on here.

  • On July 1, California’s act on confidentiality of medical info took impact, amending the Confidentiality of Medical Information Act and the Insurance Information and Privacy Protection Act relating to the confidentiality of medical info. Specifically, the invoice requires a well being care service plan or well being insurer to accommodate requests for confidential communication of medical info no matter whether or not there’s a scenario involving delicate providers or a scenario during which disclosure would endanger the person. To learn the invoice, click on here.

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