On May 22, 2020, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a charge against a payday lending enterprise for deceptively overcharging consumers millions of dollars and withdrawing money repeatedly from consumers’ bank accounts without their permission. According to the FTC’s press release, the defendants used deceptive marketing tactics through Internet websites and telemarketing to convince consumers that their loans would be repaid in a fixed number of payments, though, the FTC alleges, consumers found that long after the promised number of payments had been made, the defendants had applied their funds to finance charges only and were continuing to make regular finance-charge only withdrawals from their checking accounts.

On 5/21/2020, the CFPB issued a complaint bulletin that reflects complaint data from complaints submitted in 2020 containing coronavirus keywords.

On 5/21/2020, the Small Business Administration (SBA) issued a procedural notice to inform Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Lenders of the reporting process through with PPP Lenders will report on PPP loans and collect the processing fee on fully disbursed loans which they are eligible to receive. The 8-page document provides about 20 questions and answers for PPP lenders in regards to a number of topics such as their fees, lender responsibilities, and ongoing reporting requirements.

On 5/21/2020, the National Credit Union Administration Board held its fourth open meeting of 2020 via a live webcast. During this meeting the NCUA Board approved two items:

• An interim final rule that makes two temporary changes to the agency’s prompt corrective action regulations providing relief to credit unions that temporarily fall below well capitalized.

• A proposed rule that would provide an alternative method to satisfy the membership card or account signature card requirement.

On 5/19/2020, the Federal Trade Commission issued a warning about COVID-19 contact tracing text message scams. The article explains how scammers are sending fake contact tracing text messages that include a link, that will actually download software onto your device and give scammers access to personal and financial information. The article concludes with several ways consumers can filter unwanted text messages as well as several other steps consumers can take to protect themselves from scammers.

On 5/20/2020 the OCC issued a final CRA rule. This final rules was released by only the OCC as the FDIC and Federal Reserve have not yet participated in this final rule and, interestingly, the rule was released hours before OCC Comptroller, Joseph Otting - who was the one pushing for CRA reform and apparently driving this new rule - announced that he will be stepping down from his duties at the OCC.

In their release, the OCC states that the final rule reflects consideration of more than 7,500 comments submitted in response to the December 2019 proposal and the OCC states they made several changes to the proposal due to comments received, including…

On 5/21/2020, the CFPB published a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking to extend the comment period on their proposal to amend Regulation F, which implements the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The comment period was set to expire on June 5, 2020, but has been extended through August 4, 2020.

On 5/19/2020, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a settlement of more than $40.2 million against one of the biggest payment processing companies and its former executive. In their release, the FTC explained that the fine will settle charges that the payment processor and its former executive knowingly processed payments and laundered, or assisted laundering of, credit card transactions for scams that targeted hundreds of thousands of consumers.

According to the FTC’s complaint, First Data Merchant Services, LLC allegedly ignored repeated warnings from employees, banks, and others that a former independent sales agent (ISO -Chi “Vincent” Ko), was laundering payments through First Data for companies that were breaking the law over a number of years. Ko was later hired as an executive at First Data. According to the complaint, Ko, as an ISO, opened hundreds of merchant accounts for at least four scams. The FTC alleges that Ko opened accounts under false names, provided Wells Fargo Bank with deceptive information to open the accounts, and ignored evidence that his clients were engaged in fraud. The complaint also alleges that First Data ignored numerous warnings about Ko’s activity and that the defendants violated the FTC Act and the Telemarketing Sales Rule.