Industries

Consumer Financial Services

Consumer financial services providers face an increasingly complex regulatory landscape. Innovative new technologies have emerged to deliver products and services and the roles of federal and state regulators are evolving. Our nationally recognized Consumer Financial Services Group helps clients chart a course to achieve their business objectives in these times of change and challenge.

The attorneys in our Group—more than 70 across the country—advise on regulatory matters, assist in the design and documentation of credit products, and represent clients in class actions, government regulatory enforcement proceedings, and other lawsuits nationwide. Changes in the offing at the federal level portend an increase in government focus on and activity in this area.

Experience 

  • In Massachusetts v. Greenwood Trust, we obtained the first appellate court decision treating credit card late fees as "interest" that can be exported throughout the country under federal banking law. In achieving this result, the group helped save the industry hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars of liability in a series of class actions brought against all the major credit card companies.
  • We handled a number of class actions under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) regarding prescreened "firm offers of credit" and obtained the first ruling nationwide that the "FACT Act" amendments to the FCRA had eliminated private rights of action against users of consumer reports.
  • In Midwest Title v. Ripley, we obtained a federal court judgment under the Commerce Clause prohibiting the Indiana Financial Institutions Division from applying the Indiana Uniform Consumer Credit Code to loans closed in person outside the State of Indiana.