Financial institutions in the United States are no strangers to privacy regulations, particularly given the obligations imposed by the federal Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (“GLBA”) and the California Financial Information Privacy Act (“SB1”). More recently, financial institutions have been focused on whether and/or the extent to which the EU’s GDPR may apply to their U.S. operations. Many financial institutions,… Read More
Category Archives: Privacy
Subscribe to Privacy RSS FeedFinancial Services Report – Spring 2018
Posted in Arbitration, CFPB, Credit Cards, Electronic Payments, Enforcement Actions, Fair Lending, Investigations, Mobile Payments, Mortgage, Payday Lending, Preemption, Privacy, Regulatory Developments, State RegulatorsThe 2018 Winter Olympics are over. We watched two 17-year-olds win gold medals in sports that didn’t exist when we were 17. The Garlic Girls, with nicknames from their favorite breakfasts, and the U.S. men’s team won medals in curling. No Miracle on Ice for the U.S. men’s hockey team, but the U.S. women’s team… Read More
Financial Services Report – Winter 2017
Posted in Arbitration, Auto Lending, CFPB, Credit Cards, Enforcement Actions, Fair Lending, Foreclosure, Indirect Auto Lending, Mobile Payments, Mortgage, Payday Lending, Preemption, Privacy, Regulatory Developments, State RegulatorsThe holidays came early for the financial services industry. First, the Senate voted to repeal the CFPB’s rule banning class waivers in arbitration agreements in consumer financial contracts. Then, Richard Cordray stepped down as CFPB Director. Former Director Cordray’s attempt to name his interim successor hours before submitting his formal resignation created dueling interim directors… Read More
CFPB Outlines Principles for Consumer-Authorized Financial Data Sharing and Aggregation
Posted in CFPB, PrivacyOn October 18, the CFPB released a set of guiding principles for participants in the financial data sharing and aggregation industry. The publication of the consumer protection principles follows a November 2016 Request for Information in which the CFPB asked stakeholders in the data sharing and aggregation market to comment on consumer benefits and risks associated… Read More
Equifax Fallout: NYDFS Acts Again
Posted in Privacy, State RegulatorsThe massive Equifax breach continues to prompt responses from a wide-range of regulators. While this is not surprising in light of the scale and nature of the incident, a number of regulators are taking more aggressive and more public actions in just a short time following public announcement of the breach. While there is a… Read More
Leading on Leads? CFPB Takes Action Against Online Lead Aggregators
Posted in CFPB, Enforcement Actions, Payday Lending, Privacy, UDAAPOn September 6, 2017, the CFPB announced that it has taken action against an online lead aggregator. The allegations revolved around the company’s selling personal information of consumers who were interested in small-dollar or installment loans to online lenders. It was alleged that the loans ultimately offered to consumers were, or were likely to be, void… Read More
Financial Services Report – Fall 2017
Posted in Arbitration, CFPB, Credit Cards, Credit Reports, Electronic Payments, Enforcement Actions, Fair Lending, Investigations, Mortgage, Preemption, Privacy, Regulatory Developments, State Regulators, UDAAPThrough hurricanes, wild fires, the publication of Hillary Clinton’s book, the birth of Amal and George Clooney’s twins, and the Dodgers’ historic losing streak, Director Richard Cordray and the CFPB’s Final Arbitration Rule are still standing. As my colleague Ollie Ireland explained, these days, it’s easier to predict the weather than it is to predict… Read More
Financial Services Report – Summer 2017
Posted in Add On Products, Arbitration, CFPB, Credit Cards, Credit Reports, Enforcement Actions, Fair Lending, Foreclosure, Investigations, Mobile Payments, Mortgage, Payday Lending, Preemption, Privacy, Regulatory Developments, State Regulators, Student LendingSummer blockbuster season is officially upon us. Have you seen Wonder Woman yet? What about Guardians of the Galaxy Part 2? It’s déjà vu all over again with Baywatch, Pirates of the Caribbean, Alien, Planet of the Apes, Transformers, Cars, Spider Man, and more Inconvenient Truths from Al Gore all coming to a theatre near… Read More
Financial Services Report – Spring 2017
Posted in Arbitration, CFPB, Credit Cards, Credit Reports, Electronic Payments, Enforcement Actions, Fair Lending, Foreclosure, Investigations, Military Issues, Mobile Payments, Mortgage, Payday Lending, Preemption, Privacy, Regulatory Developments, State Regulators, Student LendingIn like a lion, out like a lamb—it works for weather; does it work for new administrations? We’ll have to wait and see. We’ll have to wait and see about the length of CFPB Director Richard Cordray’s tenure and the fate of Dodd-Frank, as it appears the Trump administration is focusing on other priorities. So… Read More
CFPB Evaluates Use of Alternative Data and Modeling Techniques in the Consumer Lending Credit Process
Posted in CFPB, Fair Lending, PrivacyOn February 16, 2017, the CFPB issued a Request for Information regarding use of alternative data and modeling techniques in the consumer lending “credit process.” The CFPB defines the “credit process” broadly as all processes and decisions made by a creditor during the full life cycle of the credit product, including marketing, pre-screening, fraud prevention,… Read More
NYDFS Significantly Revises Cybersecurity Proposal, Burdens Remain
Posted in Privacy, Regulatory DevelopmentsOn December 28, 2016, the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) released a significantly revised version of its controversial, proposed cybersecurity rules, initially proposed in September of last year. As we noted in our Client Alert at that time, the rules as originally proposed would have created one of the most comprehensive and… Read More
Financial Services Report – Winter 2016
Posted in Arbitration, Auto Lending, CFPB, Credit Cards, Disparate Impact, Electronic Payments, Enforcement Actions, Fair Lending, Foreclosure, Military Issues, Mobile Payments, Mortgage, Payday Lending, Preemption, Privacy, Regulatory Developments, State Regulators, UDAAPHope you survived all of those awkward Thanksgiving holiday conversations—amazing how divided people are on whether the court got it right in the PHH case, isn’t it? So on we go into the holiday season, while visions of Dodd-Frank repeal dance in our heads. No long winter’s nap for the CFPB, not with the inauguration… Read More
CFPB Requests Information Regarding Data Aggregation Services
Posted in CFPB, PrivacyOn November 17, 2016, the CFPB held a field hearing in Salt Lake City, Utah, and published a Request for Information (“RFI”) regarding access to consumer financial account data. Through the RFI, the CFPB is seeking information regarding consumers’ ability to access, control and share personal financial data relating to them in a usable electronic… Read More
Federal Banking Agencies Signal Enhanced Cyber Standards
Posted in Privacy, Regulatory DevelopmentsOn October 19, 2016, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Reserve Board and the OCC (collectively, the Agencies) released an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) laying out a framework for enhanced cyber risk management standards that the Agencies are considering requiring of certain “large and interconnected” financial institutions. The Agencies have not yet proposed… Read More
NY Department of Financial Services Issues Significant Cybersecurity Proposal
Posted in Privacy, Regulatory DevelopmentsOn September 13, 2016, the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) proposed cybersecurity rules that, if finalized in their current form, would create one of the most comprehensive, detailed and onerous cybersecurity standards in the country. While the proposed rules would apply only to financial institutions subject to the NYDFS’s authority under New… Read More
Financial Services Report – Fall 2016
Posted in Add On Products, Arbitration, CFPB, Credit Cards, Credit Reports, Disparate Impact, Electronic Payments, Enforcement Actions, Fair Lending, Foreclosure, Military Issues, Mobile Payments, Mortgage, Payday Lending, Preemption, Privacy, Regulatory Developments, UDAAPSo much for summer! The weather is cooling, the kids are back to school, and we better not see you wearing white so long after Labor Day! For those of you having a little trouble getting back in the swing of things, we thought we’d lead with just a few of the animals making headlines… Read More
Financial Services Report – Spring 2016
Posted in Arbitration, Auto Lending, CFPB, Credit Cards, Credit Reports, Disparate Impact, Electronic Payments, Enforcement Actions, Fair Lending, Foreclosure, Mobile Payments, Mortgage, Payday Lending, Preemption, Privacy, Regulatory Developments, State Regulators, UDAAPWhy another law firm newsletter? Over ten years ago, Will Stern answered that question in the first Editor’s Note of the first Financial Services Report. Some things have changed since then—we no longer print and mail paper copies, and we report on issues that were not even a twinkle in anyone’s eye back then (the… Read More
Is the CFPB the New Cop on the Data Security Beat?
Posted in CFPB, Enforcement Actions, Privacy, UDAAPOn March 2, 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) broke new ground (at least for the CFPB) when it released a consent order against Dwolla, Inc., an online payment platform, regarding data security. While in many respects the data security “message” sent by the CFPB is not a new one (e.g., companies must live up to… Read More
#ThrowbackThursday: Federal Agencies Issue Model GLBA Privacy Form
Posted in PrivacyIn December 2009, Morrison & Foerster published the client alert “Federal Agencies Issue Model GLBA Privacy Form.” The federal banking agencies and the CFTC, FTC, NCUA and SEC (“Agencies”) have issued a final rule amending their privacy rules under Title V of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (“GLBA”). The purpose of the amendments is to provide a… Read More
Big Data, Big Deal
Posted in Disparate Impact, Enforcement Actions, PrivacyThe FTC rang in the New Year with a report, Big Data: A Tool for Inclusion or Exclusion? Understanding the Issues. The report wrestles with the implications of using big data analytics to target and make decisions about customers. Some of the FTC’s observations are common sense, but others require more careful analysis. For example,… Read More
Financial Services Report – Winter 2015
Posted in Add On Products, Arbitration, Auto Lending, CFPB, Credit Cards, Enforcement Actions, Fair Lending, Indirect Auto Lending, Military Issues, Mobile Payments, Mortgage, Payday Lending, Privacy, Regulatory Developments, Student Lending, UDAAPWe are a full service newsletter, so we offer these can’t-miss Christmas gift ideas for the hard-to-please. Hoverboards are the “It” gift this season, but what about all the poor souls who don’t own one? We’ve devised a remote that lets you seize control from a distance and slam the thing in reverse, toggle forward,… Read More
Congress Close to Approving Limited GLBA Regulatory Relief
Posted in Privacy, Regulatory DevelopmentsOn December 1, 2015, House and Senate conferees reached a deal on a long-term highway bill, the “Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act” (H.R. 22). While the bill’s more than 1,300 pages are largely focused on highway, transportation, and safety issues, the bill includes amendments to two federal financial privacy laws, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (“GLBA”) and… Read More
NY DFS Signals a Detailed Framework for Cybersecurity Compliance
Posted in Privacy, Regulatory Developments, State RegulatorsOn November 9, 2015, the New York State Department of Financial Services (“DFS”) sent a letter to a number of state and federal financial regulators signaling that DFS may issue comprehensive cybersecurity regulations for financial institutions subject to DFS’s authority. The stated purpose of the letter was to “spark additional dialogue, collaboration and, ultimately, regulatory… Read More
Financial Services Report – Fall 2015
Posted in Arbitration, CFPB, Credit Cards, Credit Reports, Enforcement Actions, Fair Lending, Investigations, Mobile Payments, Mortgage, Payday Lending, Privacy, UDAAPThe kids may be back in school, but it was the adults who got smarter. North Korea moved to its own time zone, so now it lags only a half hour behind everyone else. Think about it. Show up late for work but still be on time. Know that the bartender really doesn’t mean it… Read More