By Judie Rinearson and Jeremy McLaughlin
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) recent Consumer Alert was certainly well intentioned. Many consumers (including the authors) who hold funds in payment apps (such as Venmo and Paypal) should be made aware that the funds are usually NOT held in an FDIC-insured bank. But that doesn’t mean the funds are necessarily unprotected.
Read MoreBy John ReVeal, Judie Rinearson, and Katie Staba
The Integrity, Notification, and Fairness in Online Retail Marketplaces for Consumers Act (the “INFORM Consumers Act” or “Act”) (https://www.congress.gov/117/bills/s936/BILLS-117s936is.pdf ) which passed on December 29, 2022 will come into effect on June 27, 2023. Originally intended to address increasing consumer complaints about online marketplace purchases of counterfeit or defective products from third party sellers, the Act requires both collection, verification and, in certain cases, disclosure of third party seller information to combat this perceived marketplace unaccountability.
Read MoreBy Daniel Knight and Hugo Chow
All holders of an Australian Financial Services License (AFSL) with a retail client authorisation will need to comply with ASIC’s internal dispute resolution (IDR) reporting framework. Summary reports will need to be provided to ASIC on a 6 monthly basis, highlighting the status of each client complaint. Reporting obligations commence from 1 July 2023 (for reporting in January or February 2024). AFSL holders should put systems in place now to ensure all required information is being captured.
Read MoreBy Cheryl L. Isaac and Maxwell J. Black
Last week, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) Chair Rostin Behnam asserted that fiat-based stablecoins (such as USD Coin (USDC), Tether (USDT), and Binance USD (BUSD), all of which are pegged to an underlying fiat currency) should be considered as commodities, subject to the CFTC’s enforcement jurisdiction.
Read MoreBy Dr. Jan Boeing and Maxime Barthez[1],
Luxembourg and the EU have taken an important step forward in the area of blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology (“DLT”). With a view to removing regulatory hurdles to the issuance, trading and post-trading of many financial instruments for which an EU regulatory framework already exists (such as the regulation of transferable securities, units in collective investment undertakings and derivatives under MiFIR, MiFID II and CSDR[2]), the EU has put in place the DLT Pilot Regime through Regulation (EU) 2022/858 of 30 May 2022. The new DLT Pilot Regime applies (with certain limitations) to all (traditional) financial instruments within the meaning of MiFID II[3] that are issued, recorded, transferred and stored using blockchain or distributed ledger technology (“DLT Financial Instruments”).
Read MoreBy Judie Rinearson, Jennifer Crowder, and Jeremy McLaughlin
On February 28, 2023, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in the abandoned property lawsuit, Delaware v. Pennsylvania (see https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/145orig_kjfl.pdf)
The question addressed by the Court focused on which state was entitled to collect unclaimed property, which arose from two financial products sold by banks on behalf of Moneygram: Agent Checks and Teller’s Checks (collectively, the “Checks”).
Read MoreBy Daniel Knight and Oliver Herrmann
New licensing requirements for crypto service providers are coming, following a series of consultations launched last week by Treasurer, Jim Chalmers. The Government approach focuses on strengthening enforcement, bolstering consumer protection and ultimately establishing a new licensing framework.
Read MoreBy Drew Hinkes, Elizabeth Thomsen, Josh Durham
As blockchain and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) are still new technologies, their legal infrastructure is still developing, creating potential vulnerabilities. Three such vulnerabilities were exposed in our previous article, available here. We have now issued a follow-up Alert that explores solutions to such licensing failures. This blog is a high-level summary; the full alert can be found here.
Read MoreBy Drew Hinkes, Carly Howard, and Judie Rinearson
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced a settlement with the digital assets/cryptocurrency exchange Kraken whereby Kraken agreed to cease offering or selling securities through its crypto asset staking services, and agreed to pay a penalty of $30 million (comprising disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and civil penalties).
Read MoreBy John ReVeal
On February 1, 2023, the CFPB proposed new rules to reduce the late fees that credit card issuers may charge to consumers (the “Proposed Rules”). The CFPB refers to current late fees as “over the top” and “exorbitant.” The CFPB indicates that it believes it has the authority to limit late fees under the CARD Act of 2009, which amended the Truth in Lending Act to require that late fees and other penalty fees be “reasonable and proportional to” the consumer’s violation of the cardholder agreement.
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