Regulatory

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On January 14, 2025, the first part of the Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC”) update to the Negative Option Rule went into effect. Negative options are contract terms that allow a seller to interpret a customer’s silence or failure to affirmatively cancel an agreement as a tacit acceptance of a renewal option—thereby creating automatically renewing contracts. While auto-renewing contracts are often intended to make subscriptions to goods and services easier and more efficient, the FTC’s stated position has been that consumers and other businesses can become “trapped” in contracts that they did not intend to renew and cannot easily cancel.Continue Reading An Offer You Can’t Refuse: The FTC’s New “Click-to-Cancel” Rule

Department of Treasury

On February 10, 2025, Rodney E. Hood, the former Chairman of the National Credit Union Administration (“NCUA”), assumed the role of First Deputy Comptroller at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (the “OCC”).  By operation of law, Mr. Hood thereby succeeded Michael J. Hsu as Acting Comptroller of the Currency under 12 U.S.C. § 4, which grants the First Deputy Comptroller the full authority of a Senate-confirmed Comptroller whenever the position is vacant.  Although President Trump nominated Jonathan Gould, a current partner at Jones Day and former chief legal officer at blockchain firm Bitfury, to serve as Comptroller, Mr. Hood now leads the OCC in an acting capacity.  Mr. Hood brings extensive experience to the role, having previously served on the NCUA Board of Directors, the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Stability Oversight Council and as Vice Chairman of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council.Continue Reading Treasury Secretary Bessent Taps Rodney E. Hood to Lead the OCC

On September 24, 2024, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law California Senate Bill 1286 (“SB 1286”).  SB 1286 will extend existing consumer debt collection protections in California to small businesses and to the collection activities of business debt.  In particular, SB 1286 is designed to expand existing prohibitions against debt collectors under the Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“RFDCPA”) and, with SB 1286’s enactment, debt collectors will now also be prohibited from engaging in unfair or deceptive acts or practices when collecting covered commercial debts.Continue Reading California Bill Aims to Expand Debt Collection Protections to Commercial Debts

Banking System
Banking System and Electronic Transfer for Business

On June 28, 2024, in an effort to bolster financial institutions’ anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (“AML/CFT”) programs, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued a proposed rule that would enumerate the minimum components required to be included within financial institutions’ AML/CFT programs. …

On October 24, 2023, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (together, the “Agencies”) issued a final rule designed to modernize and fine tune the Community Reinvestment Act’s (“CRA”) implementing regulations. The Agencies believe that the final rule, which will mostly become applicable between January 1, 2026 and January 1, 2027, is designed to achieve four primary goals:Continue Reading Final Rule Updating the Community Reinvestment Act Issued by Bank Regulators