The Impact of the Newly Established Priorities and Massive Proposed Reduction in Force (RIF) on CFPB Supervision
Consumer Finance Monitor
Our podcast show being released today features two former CFPB senior officers who were key employees in the Supervision Division under prior directors: Peggy Twohig and Paul Sanford. Peggywas a founding executive of the CFPB when the agency was created in 2010 and led the development of the first federal supervision program over nonbank consumer financial companies. Beginning in 2012, as head of CFPB’s Office of Supervision Policy, Peggy led the office responsible for developing supervision strategy for bank and nonbank markets and ensuring that federal consumer financial laws were applied...
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What Is Happening at the Federal Agencies (Other Than the CFPB) That is Relevant to the Consumer Financial Services Industry
Consumer Finance Monitor
We are releasing today on our podcast show a repurposed webinar which we produced on May 13, 2025 entitled “What is happening at the federal agencies (other than the CFPB) that is relevant to the consumer financial services industry.” During this podcast, we will inform you about recent developments at those other agencies, including the FTC, OCC, FDIC, FRB and DOJ (collectively, the “Agencies”) and the White House (through the issuance of Executive Orders). Some of the issues we consider are: • What are the strategic priorities of the...
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Everything You Should Know About the Stablecoin Bill
Consumer Finance Monitor
Our podcast show being released today will focus on S. 919, the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U. S. Stablecoins Act of 2025 or GENIUS Act which was reported out of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee by a bipartisan vote of 18-6. The bill would establish a regime to regulate stablecoins. Our guest today, Professor Art Wilmarth of George Washington University School of Law, published an op-ed on March 6 in the American Banker in which he wrote that the “..bill would allow stablecoins, which are volatile deposit-like instruments, to be...
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Navigating State AG Investigations: A Playbook For Financial Services Companies
Consumer Finance Monitor
Today’s podcast show is a repurposed webinar that we produced on April 22nd, titled “Navigating State AG Investigations: A Playbook For Financial Services Companies.” State Attorneys General (AG) investigations can present significant challenges for businesses and legal practitioners. We offer a detailed dive into effective strategies and practical tips drawn from our State AG Investigation Playbook. Our speakers, Mike Kilgarriff, Joseph Schuster, and Jenny Perkins from our Consumer Financial Services Group, Adrian King, Jr. from our Government Affairs and Public Policy Group, and Hank...
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The Impact of the Election on the FTC
Consumer Finance Monitor
Today’s podcast features Stephen Calkins, a law professor at Wayne State University in Detroit and former General Counsel of the Federal Trade Commission (the “FTC”). President Trump recently fired, without good cause, the two Democratic members of the FTC, leaving only two Republican members as commissioners. He did this even though the FTC Act provides that a commissioner may be fired by the President only for good cause and that the commission is to be governed by a bi-partisan 5-member commission This is the third time in the past few weeks that Trump has fired without good cause...
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Private Civil Consumer Financial Services Litigation to Partially Fill CFPB Void - Part 2
Consumer Finance Monitor
The podcast we are releasing today is part 2 of a re-purposed webinar we produced on March 25 titled “The Impact of the Election on the CFPB - Part 4.” As a result of the diminishing impact of the CFPB on enforcing the consumer financial services laws, we expect that void to be filled by state government enforcement agencies and private civil litigation, including class and mass actions. Our webinar focused on private civil litigation. Our featured guest for this webinar was Ira Rheingold, Executive Director of the National Association of Consumer Advocates. He was joined on the...
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Private Civil Consumer Financial Services Litigation to Partially Fill CFPB Void - Part 1
Consumer Finance Monitor
The podcast we are releasing today is part 1 of a re-purposed webinar we produced on March 25 titled “The Impact of the Election on the CFPB - Part 4.” As a result of the diminishing impact of the CFPB on enforcing the consumer financial services laws, we expect that void to be filled by state government enforcement agencies and private civil litigation, including class and mass actions. Our webinar will focus on private civil litigation. Our featured guest for this webinar was Ira Rheingold, Executive Director of the National Association of Consumer Advocates. He was joined on the panel...
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Everything You Want to Know About the CFPB as Things Stand Today, and Lots More - Part 2
Consumer Finance Monitor
Our podcast show being released today is part 2 of a repurposed interactive webinar that we presented on March 24 featuring two of the leading journalists who cover the CFPB - Jon Hill from Law360 and Evan Weinberger from Bloomberg. Our show begins with Tom Burke, a Ballard Spahr consumer financial services litigator, describing in general terms the status of the 38 CFPB enforcement lawsuits that were pending when Rohit Chopra was terminated. The cases fall into four categories: (a) those which have already been voluntarily dismissed with prejudice by the CFPB; (b) those which the CFPB has...
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Everything You Want to Know About the CFPB as Things Stand Today and Lots More - Part 1
Consumer Finance Monitor
Our podcast show being released today is Part 1 of a repurposed interactive webinar that we presented on March 24, featuring two of the leading journalists who cover the CFPB - Jon Hill from Law360 and Evan Weinberger from Bloomberg. Our show began with Jon and Evan chronicling the initiatives beginning on February 3 by CFPB Acting Directors Scott Bessent, Russell Vought and DOGE to shut down or at least minimize the CFPB. These initiatives were met with two federal district court lawsuits (one in DC brought by the labor unions who represents CFPB employees who were terminated and the other...
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A Deep Dive Into Judge Jackson’s Preliminary Injunction Order Against CFPB Acting Director Vought
Consumer Finance Monitor
Our special podcast show today deals primarily with a 112-page opinion and 3-page order issued on March 28 by Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in a lawsuit brought, among others, by two labor unions representing CFPB employees against Acting Director Russell Vought. The complaint alleged that Acting Director Vought and others were in the process of dismantling the CFPB through various actions taken since Rohit Chopra was fired and replaced by Acting Director Scott Bessent and then Acting Director Russell Vought. This process included, among other...
info_outlineIn today’s episode, we discuss the CFPB’s recent proposed data broker rule—a proposal that would greatly expand the reach of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
On December 3, the CFPB issued a proposed rule promoted as one that would require companies that sell data about income or financial tier, credit history, credit score or debt payments to comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The proposal would make it clear that when data brokers sell certain sensitive consumer information, they are “consumer reporting agencies” under the FCRA. That would require them to comply with accuracy requirements. It also would require them to provide consumers access to their information. However, the proposal is much broader than a data broker rule, and the podcast explores the significant breadth of the proposal.
The rule might face an uncertain future, since it was issued by current CFPB Director Rohit Chopra and pushes beyond the boundaries of the FCRA. Chopra’s aggressive regulatory regime is opposed by the Trump Administration.
Joining us today is Dan Smith, president and CEO of the Consumer Data Industry Association, which represents the consumer data reporting industry.
The host of the discussion is Alan Kaplinsky, the former practice group leader for 25 years, and now senior counsel of the Consumer Financial Services Group at Ballard Spahr. Joining the discussion are two Ballard Spahr partners: Richard Andreano, the practice leader of our mortgage banking group at Ballard Spahr and John Culhane.
In this episode, we will discuss the key aspects of the landmark proposed rule, such as:
1. The proposal being much broader than one addressing the sale of personal information to various parties, including stalkers, spies and scammers.
2. The fact that the proposal does not even define what is a data broker.
3. How the proposal would significantly change the concept of what constitutes a consumer report, including the proposal to treat credit header information as a consumer report.
4. How the proposal would change the concept of what constitutes a consumer reporting agency.
5. Requirements that the proposal would add to the written authorization permissible purpose to obtain a consumer report, including requirements regarding revocation of the authorization.
6. How the proposal would modify the requirements to rely on the legitimate business need permissible purpose to obtain a consumer report.
7. Whether the CFPB actually has legal authority to essentially rewrite the FCRA.