AI in Financial Services—Consumer Protection Challenges in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
Release Date: 08/06/2026
Consumer Financial Services Litigation Series - Episode 1: Pro Se Plaintiffs
Consumer Finance Monitor
Artificial intelligence is increasingly changing single‑plaintiff consumer litigation, particularly by enabling pro se plaintiffs to file longer, more citation‑dense complaints more quickly, while simultaneously giving defense counsel tools to assess cases, identify weaknesses, and pursue early resolution or dismissal strategies. In the first episode of this series focusing on consumer financial services litigation, Joseph Schuster and Matthew Morr, partners at Ballard Spahr in our Consumer Financial Services Group, discuss both the tactical opportunities and the professional...
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What Are Class Action Waivers Worth? A New Study Looks to the Stock Market for Answers
Consumer Finance Monitor
In the episode of the Consumer Finance Monitor podcast released today, the host of the show, Alan Kaplinsky (founder, former leader for 25 years, and now Senior Counsel of our Consumer Financial Services Group) spoke with James Fallows Tierney, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Associate Professor of Law at Chicago-Kent College of Law, about his working paper, “.” Professor Tierney’s research focuses on the intersection of law, financial markets and consumer finance. His study uses financial-market data to examine how investors reacted to developments affecting the...
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SpaceX’s Novel Shareholder Dispute-Resolution Bylaws Could Have Far-Reaching Implications
Consumer Finance Monitor
The SpaceX IPO generated enormous attention for obvious reasons. It was the largest IPO in history, and the company’s stock price initially surged after trading began. But an important legal development associated with the IPO has received considerably less attention: SpaceX adopted an unusually comprehensive shareholder dispute-resolution regime (the “Regime”) in its bylaws. In our Consumer Finance Monitor podcast released today, our host, Alan Kaplinsky (founder, former leader for 25 years, and now Senior Counsel of our Consumer Financial Services Group) spoke with Professor Mohsen...
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AI in Debt Collection: Opportunities, Risks, and the Importance of Data Governance
Consumer Finance Monitor
In our Consumer Finance Monitor podcast show being released today, our special guest John McNamara, Chief Growth Officer at Avtal (a fintech and software as a service (SAS) company that provides an AI-powered, white-labeled digital engagement platform to help third-party consumer debt collection agencies automate communication and process self-service payments) and a former CFPB senior official who played a significant role in developing Regulation F promulgated under the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act explained that the debt collection industry needs to distinguish genuine AI...
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The End of Shopping? Agentic AI and the Future of Consumer Financial Services Introduction
Consumer Finance Monitor
In the Consumer Finance Monitor podcast we are releasing today, Alan Kaplinsky, founder and former chair for 25 years and now Senior Counsel of the Consumer Financial Services Group, spoke with Professor Mark Bartholomew of the University at Buffalo School of Law, co-author with Professor Samuel Becher of “,” a forthcoming article in the William & Mary Law Review. The article explores how autonomous shopping agents could transform consumer commerce and raises fundamental questions concerning consumer autonomy, privacy, competition and consumer protection. The implications for financial...
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The CFPB Needs Reform, But Not More Regulatory Whiplash
Consumer Finance Monitor
The future of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) has rarely been more uncertain. Since its creation, the CFPB has been at the center of intense political and policy debate, with its priorities changing dramatically as administrations change. The events of the past year or so under the leadership of Acting Directors chosen by President Trump, however, have taken that policy whiplash to a new level. In our latest Consumer Finance Monitor podcast released today, Alan Kaplinsky (the founder and former leader for 25 years of the Consumer Financial Services Group at our firm)...
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Cantero II: Circuit Split and OCC Preemption Determination Set Up Likely Supreme Court Review
Consumer Finance Monitor
National bank preemption is headed toward another Supreme Court showdown. The Second Circuit has held that New York’s mortgage escrow-interest requirement is preempted, directly conflicting with the First Circuit’s decision upholding a comparable Rhode Island requirement and the Ninth Circuit’s decision allowing a similar California law to remain in effect. The OCC has sided with the Second Circuit, issuing final preemption regulations concluding that state laws requiring national banks to pay interest on mortgage escrow accounts are preempted. In the latest episode of the Consumer...
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When Consumer Protection Disclosures Work Too Well: New Podcast Explores the Distributional Costs of Effective Consumer Regulation
Consumer Finance Monitor
Disclosure has long been one of the principal tools of consumer protection. The basic premise seems straightforward: if consumers are given better information about the terms of a transaction, they should be able to make better-informed decisions. But what if better disclosure works differently for different consumers? And what if a disclosure that improves decision-making overall can, in some circumstances, actually worsen outcomes for financially vulnerable consumers? Those are among the important and provocative questions explored in the latest episode released today of the Consumer Finance...
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The “Confidence Advantage”: Why Privacy, Cybersecurity and AI Governance Are Becoming Business Imperatives
Consumer Finance Monitor
In the latest episode of the Consumer Finance Monitor podcast that we are releasing today, we explore a topic that is becoming increasingly important for financial services companies and virtually every other business operating in today’s digital economy: how privacy, cybersecurity, and AI governance can be transformed from compliance obligations into sources of customer confidence, resilience, and competitive advantage. Alan Kaplinsky (founder, founder lease for 25 years and now Senior counsel of our Consumer Financial Services Group) hosts and interviews our guests. Our guests are Amy...
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CFPB’s Immigration Status Guidance Creates a Compliance Catch-22 for Creditors
Consumer Finance Monitor
The CFPB’s June 5, 2026 statement on “” presents creditors with a difficult, and potentially unprecedented, compliance dilemma. The Bureau says that when creditors are required to assess a consumer’s ability to repay, they may, and in some circumstances may be required to, consider information about the consumer’s immigration status if that information bears on the consumer’s current or reasonably expected future income. But how can creditors take immigration status into account without violating federal or state fair-lending laws that prohibit discrimination based on national...
info_outlineIn today’s episode of the award-winning Consumer Finance Monitor Podcast, our host, Alan Kaplinsky (founder, chair for 25 years and now Senior Counsel of the Consumer Financial Services Group at Ballard Spahr LLP) is joined by Delicia Hand, a nationally recognized expert on digital civil rights, AI governance, and consumer protection who leads AI policy initiatives at Consumer Reports. The discussion centers on Consumer Reports’ recently released report, AI and Consumer Finance: A Landscape Analysis of Market Forces, Evaluation Frameworks, and Regulatory Gaps, and examines how AI is reshaping consumer finance while exposing important gaps in existing regulatory frameworks.
Key topics discussed are:
· Why approximately 75% of consumers express concern that AI could result in bias or unfair treatment in financial services, while only 8% believe current laws adequately protect them.
· Whether the rapid adoption of AI is being driven more by competitive pressures than by demonstrated consumer benefits.
· Consumer Reports’ proposed framework for evaluating AI systems used in financial services, including twelve key dimensions designed to assess whether AI systems adequately protect consumers.
· The growing use of AI in credit underwriting and lending, including both its potential to expand access to credit and its potential to perpetuate existing biases.
· The increasing use of algorithmic and personalized pricing and the consumer protection concerns raised by AI-driven pricing models.
· The risks associated with consumers relying on general-purpose AI systems as financial advisors despite the absence of traditional fiduciary obligations or regulatory oversight.
· Privacy concerns arising from AI systems that access consumers’ financial account information through data aggregation services.
· The need for meaningful consumer redress mechanisms when AI systems make mistakes, including access to human review and effective dispute resolution.
· The absence of a comprehensive federal framework governing AI in financial services and the unresolved questions surrounding accountability among AI developers, financial institutions, and other participants in the AI supply chain.
This episode will be of particular interest to banks, fintech companies, financial services providers, compliance professionals, regulators, and attorneys seeking to understand the rapidly evolving legal and policy landscape governing the use of artificial intelligence in consumer finance.
Consumer Finance Monitor is hosted by Alan Kaplinsky, Senior Counsel at Ballard Spahr, and the founder and former chair of the firm's Consumer Financial Services Group. We encourage listeners to subscribe to the podcast on their preferred platform for weekly insights into developments in the consumer finance industry.