Law and legal issues

A Texas judge dealt the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau a setback that has changed the bureau's calculus for furthering its near-term agenda. But an ambitious Supreme Court could also call all of the bureau's final rules into question.

Two bank trade groups have asked the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to relieve all banks from complying with its small-business lending rule until after the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether the bureau's funding is constitutional.

Churchill Funding is accusing Easy Financial of reneging on a master purchase agreement both companies signed in 2020.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued only 20 enforcement actions in 2022, but some observers say the enforcement numbers belie the results that director Rohit Chopra is getting from other ways of holding companies accountable.

The case involves a house seized for a tax debt — but the state pocketed the profits.

Prosecutors claim every dollar in subsidy funds from settlements equates to ten times the amount in value in home lending efforts.

But attorneys for the small Chicago-based mortgage company remained defiant and actually welcomed the Bureau's move.

A federal appeals court ruled in favor of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, setting up a court split ahead of a highly anticipated Supreme Court hearing in October. The Fifth Circuit previously ruled that the agency's funding mechanism violates the Constitution's separation of powers doctrine.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has asked the high court to overrule a lower-court decision that threatens its funding structure. The justices didn't accept the case on Tuesday, but experts say it could still make the cut in the coming week.

The deal has a $10 million prefunding account that could purchase additional eligible receivables during a three-month period after closing.